Unfaithful Covenant

by Michael Anderle

  Normalcy was, by most people’s measure, the opposite of the surreal, but as Jia stepped into the clean white lobby of Sanni Rentals, she was struck by the contrast between the building and a neighboring shop across the street that was half-caved in, the front wall mostly gone and burned rubble strewn about. Sanni Rentals was untouched from the outside, and the crisp, spacious lobby was spotless. Relaxing light Lunar Neo-classical played. A couple of chairs stood near the entrance, clustered around a data window playing Romeo and Zitarkette, a satirical animated comedy.

  A slender man in a white suit stood behind a white counter near the back of the lobby, his broad eager smile almost infectiously pleasant. Holographic signs listing vehicle types and prices floated behind him. This wasn’t the appearance of someone living in a warzone. He wouldn’t look out of place in Neo SoCal. There was no one else present, so Jia and Erik walked right up to the counter.

  “Hello!” the man offered. “I’m Sana Sanni, owner and proprietor. Welcome to Sanni Rentals. How can I assist you in your vehicle needs this fine and wonderful day?”

  Optimism and delusion could feed each other. That was Jia’s only explanation for the man’s behavior.

  “Uh, a Sergeant Vines said you were the man to see about renting a truck,” Jia explained, looking over her shoulder to make sure the area was as damaged as it seemed from her first impression.

  The more she looked, the more disturbed she was. Most of the buildings on the street had taken obvious damage from artillery or heavy explosives. The few that hadn’t sported bullet holes, except for Sanni Rentals.

  Sana clapped his hands together. “Ah, yes, most excellent. Sergeant Vines is a good man. I told him he should retire here someday. He seems to like it, although not all Earthers do. Very narrow-minded, but what can you do?” He shook a finger. “If I may be so bold, your accent doesn’t sound local. Would you happen to be from Earth? If so, please take no offense. I understand it can take a while to warm to the charms of New Samarkand.”

  Jia and Erik exchanged glances before she answered, “Yes. We had some business to take care of, and…you know, uh, things happened.”

  Sana waved a hand. “All temporary unpleasantness. Don’t let it get you down. But let’s talk about your needs. Hovertruck. You sure you don’t want a flitter? I have several nice models.”

  “Aren’t flitters getting shot down?” Erik asked.

  Sana chuckled. “I can’t dispute that does happen on occasion, but there’s nothing like the flexibility that comes with a flitter.”

  A quick check of the prices on the signs indicated that flitters were more expensive than hovertrucks. Jia suspected the only flexibility Sana cared about was financial, but she couldn’t blame him, given the impact of the rebellion on the economy.

  Jia shook her head. “No, we need a hovertruck. Something boring, safe, normal, and common around here. Nothing that stands out.”

  “Are you sure?” He sounded disappointed.

  Sana snapped his fingers and made a circle with his hand. A hologram of a bright yellow boxy hovertruck appeared. The image rotated as triumphant music played.

  “A vehicle like this would get you noticed,” he commented.

  Erik stared at the man like he was on drugs. “Most people don’t want to be noticed in a warzone, especially during a rebellion.”

  “You know, the soldiers keep telling me that, too. If everyone has to stay here anyway, they might as well stand out, but are you sure? If you don’t like yellow, I have all sorts of colors available.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Maybe not as stylish, but more subtle.”

  “Basic gray,” Jia insisted. “Gray like half the rubble lying around the city. Kind of camouflage.”

  “Very well, then.” Sana’s smile never dimmed. “The customer is always right, and the Army has been so helpful to me by renting vehicles. I was worried at first that they’d just take things, but they’ve paid for everything, so I want to do right by their friends.” He gave a firm nod. “So, what else can I get for you? We offer a lovely sightseeing drone package—very sophisticated programming. You just have to press a button, and they’ll automatically capture everything interesting in the area and stay close to the vehicle. You don’t have to do anything.”

  “Aren’t drones also getting shot down a lot?” Erik asked, shaking his head.

  Sana tilted his head. “I’d be lying if I said no drones are getting shot down, but not all of them. You know, these things happen during difficult times, and don’t we all eventually have difficult times?”

  “That’s okay,” Jia replied. “We’ll be fine. We mostly just need to visit someone. We don’t require anything special, and we’re not going sightseeing.”

  His eyes widened in delight. “For a modest add-on fee, I can rent you a vehicle with a small nano-AR interface. It’s great for keeping your kids distracted.”

  Jia blinked. “We…huh? Kids?”

  “You know, you’re driving along, trying to get errands taken care of, and the kids are bawling, complaining about how there’s nothing interesting on the net. You can leave them in the truck while you visit your friend and not have them realize how long it took.” Sana held up a finger. “You know what they say? Children are more engaged by physical objects, and that’s where the Frontier Caterpillar Nano-AR playset comes in. It’s all toys in one, the flexibility of VR with that ever-so-important sense of touch.”

  “We don’t have any children,” Jia replied. “We don’t need to keep anyone entertained during our visit to our friend.”

  “Maybe Malcolm.” Erik snickered.

  “He’s a big boy who can entertain himself,” Jia snapped before turning back to Sana. “Nothing fancy, nothing unusual, just a standard-issue hovertruck that’ll get us from point A to point B. No upgrades. No drone packages. Just the vehicle.”

  “Your choice.” Sana put a finger to his lips and furrowed his brow, deep in thought. “What about insurance? My rates are slightly elevated because of the unpleasantness, but since you’re a friend of Sergeant Vines, I’ll give you a discount.”

  “Yes.” Jia chuckled. “I think we’ll pay for a little extra insurance. You never know what might happen out there.”

  “True. You wouldn’t want to have an accident and then be liable.”

  “I was talking about the rebel…” Jia shook her head. “You know what? Never mind.”

  Chapter Forty

  The hovertruck cruised down the damaged streets, the auto-leveling system making it easy to ignore the shallower craters and potholes. That was helpful, given there didn’t seem to be a single street anywhere in Sogdia that hadn’t been hit in the last month.

  The residual damage was proof of the intensity of the rebellion. Under normal circumstances, road and infrastructure maintenance was trivial for a mature colony of this size. The lack of repairs indicated the government wanted to conserve resources and expected the rebellion to continue for a while, regardless of what they claimed.

  Erik found himself reflexively seeking camera and sensor displays that didn’t exist in the vehicle, though they’d loaded the TR-7 and laser rifle into the back seat in case they needed something heavier than their pistols on the way to their destination. They were traveling to the last reported location of a senior ID agent left on the planet, according to Alina’s data. With the lengthy delays in communications between the colony and Earth, they couldn’t be assured they would find anyone or even that the man was still alive, but it was a good place to start.

  They’d already passed through two checkpoints. The ghost in question, Agent Caul, lived on the edge of an area the Army claimed they maintained passable control over. The closer Erik and Jia got to their destination, the worse the scars of war were. The area close to the hangar would not be out of place in Neo SoCal, or at least the Shadow Zone, with civilians still going about their business, but the current area resembled a pulverized wasteland, and the only humans they spotted were the occasional Army patrols in the distance.
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br />   Malcolm sat in the back of the truck, nervously looking from window to window as if a gunship would arrive any second to take them down. He’d done well during the last fight, so Erik didn’t feel the need to poke him about his nervousness. Most men were nervous in battle. It was more experience than strength of character that fed the bravery of a seasoned soldier.

  “What do we do if Agent Caul isn’t there?” Malcolm asked.

  “Ask around with the military,” Erik replied. “That’s our best bet. After blowing away an Elite with a modified MX 60, I’m less worried about keeping a low profile other than when we’re traveling, but there’s no reason to throw away what little secrecy we have left if we can find the guy without their help.

  Malcolm brought up four data windows, each displaying graphs. “No significant jamming in this area. That’s good, right? It means the rebels are weaker here, so the military doesn’t feel the need to jam.”

  “Not a lot of drones still,” Jia commented. “That means AAA and snipers are still a concern, but the lack of jamming is less about the rebels and more about the mercenaries and the Core. Not running with anything but laser comms has to be hard on the rebels. I suspect the jamming is mostly about maximizing the surprise capabilities of the Elites.”

  “But they aren’t really winning.” Malcolm shuddered in revulsion. “And those things can’t be cheap, even if you ignore the whole sticking people’s brains in them part!”

  Erik snorted. “Now that we’re on the ground and have a better feel for the situation, I don’t think this was ever about winning. For the rebels, yes. For the mercs and Core, no. It’s almost like they’re stalling.”

  “For what?” Jia asked. “Reinforcements? We’ve got a decent Fleet presence in this system, and if pirates are picking off smugglers, that’s decreasing the ability of the rebels to get supplies. The Army has received more reinforcements than the rebels.”

  “If I knew what they were planning, we wouldn’t be driving around in this boring-ass truck, waiting to get blown away by arty,” Erik replied with a smile. “I’m sure it’s annoying, vicious, and murderous, and we’ll find out soon enough. It didn’t take us long to run into Elites.”

  He slowed the truck. They were approaching the address, but the entire neighborhood looked deserted. It was mostly comprised of densely packed apartment buildings, but most of them had suffered damage, including one with the back half of two Army gunships sticking out of it. Piles of rubble lined the half-cleared roads.

  Erik slowed to a stop in front of the destination building. The top two floors had been blown off, leaving the odd sight of an exposed bathroom, complete with toilet, halfway through the building. A low-flying drone zoomed overhead, but he wasn’t worried. According to Sana, his vehicle transponder signal was registered with the Army.

  “Stay in the truck, Malcolm,” Jia ordered, opening her door. “We’ll fetch you if we need you.”

  “What if some rebels come?” he asked.

  “Shoot them.” Jia shrugged. “You’ve got two big guns.” She gestured at the TR-7 and the laser rifle. “Those are both big enough that it doesn’t matter where you hit.”

  Erik stepped out of the truck. “Or you can run them over, but try not to do that.” He grinned. “It’d be nice to get our deposit back.”

  Malcolm groaned and slumped in his seat. “I now understand the wisdom of being the guy who sits on the ship. I like it even better when we do Earth missions and I’m not in the same city as you two. That’s quality safety.”

  “You’re helping save the UTC.” Jia closed her door and waited for Erik.

  They made their way to the front door of the building, which remained frozen in a half-open position. Jia passed through with ease, but the small space forced Erik to squeeze through with a grunt.

  Erik looked around. “Lights are on.” He nodded at a camera in the corner with a small red light. “And cameras.”

  “I’m impressed by the sturdiness of these frontier buildings,” Jia admitted, slowly scanning the room. “If you pounded a building in Neo SoCal this hard, I don’t know if you’d still have power.”

  “Under normal conditions, these buildings would serve as temporary shelters in case of a major dome breach,” Erik commented, his eyes narrowing on one of the cameras. “Best way to kill a dome city is from underneath. They harden them on the assumption something might crash into them from above.”

  Jia pointed at a stairwell. “I’m not impressed enough to take the elevator. Our man’s on the second floor.”

  “Allegedly.” Erik looked around one last time. “Just stay alert. A lot might have changed since he last reported.”

  Jia took point up the stairs, her stun pistol at the ready. They arrived on the second floor and stepped into the hall. The target’s apartment was not far. Creeping forward in silence, they strained to listen for anything unusual, but the only thing they heard was distant gunfire. That was so common it had faded to easily ignorable background noise despite their short time on the planet.

  They stopped in front of the contact’s apartment. Jia inclined her head at a camera at the end of the corridor. Erik nodded back. He reached down to his PNIU to transmit an ID code to the apartment door access, and the door slid open.

  Erik stepped through, his hand resting on his gun. Jia followed with a frown. The apartment was remarkably boring and small, holding a couch, chairs, and a small table. There was no obvious damage, but there were discarded casings on the kitchen floor.

  “Agent Caul?” Jia asked. “You here?”

  Something shimmered in the kitchen. Jia spun toward the distortion and nodded at Erik. He drew his pistol.

  “We’re not here to play around,” he announced. “We’ve come a damned long way because this place is infested with Elites. I got sick of fighting them on Chiron.”

  A dark-haired man in a tactical suit materialized and a wall disappeared, revealing another meter of kitchen. He had a holstered pistol. “You’ve fought them before?” the man asked. He snorted. “I wasn’t sure if you two were the real deal, but you must be if you’re here with that kind of experience.” He narrowed his eyes. “I knew they had special options to get people here quickly, but no one’s told me the details. I have my suspicions, but you know us ghosts. We’re supposed to stay in our lane. It helps keep us breathing.”

  “Agent Caul?” Erik asked.

  The man nodded. “Blackwell and Lin, I presume? Yes, I’m Agent Caul. I don’t know why I’m so surprised. I heard about your little stunt at the checkpoint. You two must realize by now you’re one of the few people in the UTC who are flying around in an MX 60 with a hidden turret. It’s not what anyone would call subtle.”

  Erik grinned before folding his arms and leaning against the wall. “Nothing wrong with signature gear.”

  “It saved lives and took out Elites,” Jia commented. “We weren’t going to sit around and let the conspiracy do what they wanted. They’ve turned this colony into a hellscape. They need to be punished.”

  Agent Caul wandered over to his kitchen table and sat heavily. Everything about the man, from his slouch to his heavy eyes, screamed exhaustion. He shook his head. “How much do you know about what happened here?”

  “They massacred the local agents,” Jia replied softly. “Like they knew who they were.”

  Agent Caul’s face twitched into a scowl. “Not like they knew. They did know. I found out recently they’ve been infiltrating this place for a long time, getting ready for at least a year. They didn’t start bringing in the weapons and Elites until recently, but they put a lot of effort into tagging us before the effort.” He curled his hand into his fist. “It didn’t help that we had a traitor.”

  Erik growled. “Just point us at him, and we’ll take him out.”

  “You don’t need to.” Agent Caul shook his head again. “I handled that leak last week.” He patted his holster. “I should have tried to take him alive, but…”

  “I would have done the sam
e thing,” Erik declared. “I’m not going to judge you.”

  “The question is if they all died for nothing,” Jia interrupted. She kept her stern look when Agent Caul frowned at her. “I understand you’ve had to lie low, but if you found a traitor, you must have found other useful intel. We’ve come a long way to pick up info about the conspiracy, and this is a rare chance since they’re operating in the open. Taking out Elites, while satisfying, is something the Army can do, so let’s do what only we can.”

  “You’re right,” Agent Caul replied. “When I took out the traitor, I also got my hands on some encrypted data. It has to be important.”

  “Why haven’t you turned it over to the military?” Jia asked.

  “This is a backwater garrison with frontier reinforcements.” Agent Caul slammed his fist on the table, which shook. “If I can’t trust my local agents, how am I supposed to trust the military? All it takes is one officer who’s working for the other side or sleeping with someone who is. The way the rebels keep pushing the military back, only to be pushed back, makes me think there have to be traitors.”

  “Not necessarily,” Erik argued. “The mercs might be holding back the Elites purposely, trying to drag this whole thing out, and bringing them out when they see openings.”

  Agent Caul nodded. “I’ve wondered if that’s their plan, too. I just don’t get what the end goal is. The more they drag things out, the more they guarantee a loss for the rebellion.”

  “And the more damage they inflict on the colony,” Jia countered, her face solemn.

  “True.”

  “And the files?” Erik asked. “I understand not wanting to turn them over to the military, that makes sense, but why not check them out yourself?”

  “Because this isn’t a schoolkid’s diary, Blackwell,” Caul retorted. “There’s serious encryption that requires resources and equipment I doubt is available on this planet. I’m not even sure the Fleet and Army garrisons have it. The only thing I know is those files relate to the Elites on this planet.”