Defense (Silver Cane Book 2)

by James David Victor

  Defense

  Silver Cane, Book 2

  James David Victor

  Fairfield Publishing

  Contents

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Thank You

  Free Story

  Preview: Discovery

  Copyright © 2017 Fairfield Publishing

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Except for review quotes, this book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the author.

  This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is purely coincidental.

  Chapter 1

  The sound of blazer rounds slamming into the low composite wall was familiar and exciting. Silver kept low to the ground. The last round had chipped away at the top edge of the wall scattering fragments of composite. Other misaimed rounds screamed over head, keeping Silver’s pulse racing and her head down.

  The low wall marked the outer edge of the small settlement. A gang of criminals held off Silver and her trainee with a sustained blazer fire. Silver looked across to Sam Ryan who crouched behind another section of the composite wall.

  “How many crims are holed up in that building?” Silver shouted across to Ryan.

  “Six, maybe seven.” Ryan pressed himself flush to the floor as the blazer rounds continued to smash into the wall.

  “What it is, Ryan, Six or seven?” Silver let her visor float above the wall. She observed the building and marked the positions of the three criminals. One was on the second floor moving from one firing position to another. The other two were firing from the front door and adjacent window. A blazer round smashed Silver’s visor.

  “We need backup,” Ryan said.

  “There is no backup.” Silver checked her blazer. “Any other suggestions?”

  Ryan looked at Silver and shook his head.

  “Get ready to return fire. Get them to put their heads down and then we can move in.” Silver readied her blazer. She gestured with her weapon that Ryan should follow her lead. Silver pointed her blazer over the top of the wall and blindly fired at the building.

  Silver’s blazer fire checked the fire coming from the house. She looked across to Ryan. “Fire your weapon.” Silver shouted, losing patience with the cowering trainee. “Fire your weapon and get ready to move.”

  Ryan held his blazer over the top of the wall and fired a few blasts toward the house. Silver shifted her suits grav field and leapt vertically. She fired a well aimed shot at the gunman in the upper floor window. The man was flung backward by the blazer round to the chest.

  Silver reached the top of her vertical leap and surveyed the terrain in front of her, noting a position with cover nearer the house. She directed her grav field at the point and dove toward it. Blazer rounds tore the air around her as she moved rapidly towards the ground. She aimed and felled another crim with a single blast to the head.

  Looking back over her shoulder, Silver saw Ryan peeking nervously over the small composite wall. She landed lightly and saw the last criminal running out from a back exit. Silver leapt again, rising high above the house. She targeted the running crim and pulled the trigger on her blazer.

  The moment Silver pulled the trigger the world around her began to flicker and vanish, first the running criminal, then the house and finally the distant countryside. The VR simulation shut down one element at a time until only the blank virtual reality generation decks remained. Silver lowered herself to the deck of the VR environment. Ryan was standing up as the small composite wall flicked out of existence.

  Standing with her hands on her hips and breathing heavily Silver called out to her Artificial Intelligence. “Arty. What happened to my training simulation?”

  “You have failed the training simulation. Resetting environment and building new scenario.”

  “Failed?” Silver attached her blazer to her hip. “I nearly had them all.”

  “Exactly,” Arty replied.

  Silver looked at Sam Ryan as he wandered over the deck towards her. She heaved a breath and fixed Ryan with a disappointed look.

  “Now that I’ve shown you how to do it do you think you can do better than cower behind cover next time?”

  Ryan nodded.

  “Set next scenario, Arty. Maybe not so tricky this time.”

  Silver looked at Ryan. He was as raw as any recruit who had been accepted into the agent core of the police service and Ryan seemed to lack any aptitude for the work. He was unobservant and undisciplined. He couldn’t spot even the simplest clues and he couldn’t commit himself to action when it was the only thing to do.

  Silver felt she must be slipping too because she could not see how Sam Ryan had been selected for agent training. It was true that the police service had been almost completely destroyed by a terrorist bomb but there were hundreds of candidates for agent training from civil servants to military officers looking for a fresh challenge.

  “You lead this time,” Silver said. “I’ll hang back and check your progress. Remember, observe. You need to make a quick assessment of the situation. And then you need to act. Observe. Assess. Act. You ready to go?”

  Ryan nodded. It was an unconvincing nod and filled Silver with doubt that Ryan would ever gain the status of agent.

  “Agent Silver,” Arty interrupted. “Message for you coming through from Gov Central.”

  Silver reactivated her neural processor and found the message from Jed Skraf, the bureaucrat newly appointed to rebuild the police service. She was being summoned to Gov Central on Pepper.

  “Why are they dragging me all the way to Pepper?” Silver muttered to herself.

  “What other reason could there be for wanting to meet you in person?” Arty asked.

  “No,” Silver said in exasperated disbelief. “No. He wouldn’t?”

  “I’ll prepare Razor for the trip,” Arty said.

  Silver walked towards the exit. “He can’t do this to me,” Silver said as she walked away from Ryan.

  “What should I do?” Ryan asked as Silver walked out of the VR training environment.

  Silver and Arty answered Ryan in chorus. “Practice.”

  The flight to Pepper was swift and uneventful. Silver passed the time as best she could. She sat in her chair, she paced the flight deck, she lie restlessly on her bunk. She busied herself with equipment checks and system checks.

  “Razor is in prime condition,” Arty assured Silver as she removed a panel to check a minor system.

  “I just need something to keep me busy,” she replied.

  Silver removed components and checked them before reinstalling them and replacing the panel. She knew she was making work for herself. It was all designed to ignore the fact that she was on route to meet the civil servant Skraf. There was only one reason why Skraf would want to meet her in person. She had no time.

  Silver had been working around the clock training new agents. The police service needed to rebuild rapidly following the loss of so many officers and agents in the terrorist bomb attack on police HQ.

  Silver had no time for Skraf when she had an entire system to monitor and protect, practically single handily. It was ludicrous for Skraf to cut into Silver’s time like this. She wasn’t going to take it. If Skraf thought Silver was going to comply he had another thing coming.

  “Approaching Pepper,” Arty reported. “Clearance to land at Gov Central is granted. We are instructed to proceed immediately.”

  Standing at another of Razor’s access panels S
ilver took a breath. “Proceed, Arty,” she said. “Put us down right on top of this annoying bureaucrat.”

  Chapter 2

  A robed civil servant stood at a tall lectern outside Skraf’s office. He looked up as Silver walked briskly toward him. The civil servant looked at Silver waiting for her to introduce herself or ask permission to see Skraf. Silver stared back at the man and kept on at her swift pace. The civil servant stepped out from behind the lectern and held an arm out to stop Silver’s advance toward the large timber double doors to Skraf’s office.

  “You can’t just go in...” The civil servant was young. His pale, smooth skin shone with a sheen of sweat as he tried to stop Silver. The young, soft hands held out as a barrier to Silver quivered in the loose sleeve. He didn’t slow Silver’s step, even a little bit.

  Silver sent a protocol from her neural processor to Gov Central AI to open the door in front of her. The door swung open smoothly. Skraf was sitting behind a large wood desk at the far side on the wide, cool office. Silver’s heels clicked on the polished stone floor.

  “Agent Silver,” Skraf said in mock civility. “Please come in.”

  Silver continued at pace across the office.

  “Glad you could make it so quickly.” Skraf held a hand out toward one of the large soft chairs opposite him. “Take a seat, please. Can I offer you refreshment?” Skraf waved to the young civil servant who stood aimlessly in the open doorway. “Send for a pitcher of mint lemon water, and two glasses.” He looked again at the advancing Silver, “do you take honey with it?”

  Silver stopped at the desk. She slammed her hands down on the desk and fixed Skraf with a fierce look. “I’m not here for lemons and honey,” she said. “I’m here to tell you to go to hell.”

  Skraf leaned back in his chair. He turned to the window that ran the length of the office, overlooking the shimmering blue waters of the Shoal. Streaks of bioluminescence crossed the wide bay as Cutter Sharks zipped through the waters. The hanging palms at the water’s edge dipped their rich green leaves into the waves that lapped lazily against the white sands of the beach.

  “Hell?” Skraf said. “I’m already there. Stuck behind this desk while the rest of the population of the system follow their dreams. You and I, Silver, we chose a life in hell, did we not?”

  “I know why you brought me here, Skraf,” Silver shot at the smiling bureaucrat.

  “Please, call me Jed. Better to be friendly if we’re going to be working together.”

  “I’m an agent,” Silver said. “My place is out there,” Silver pointed out through the wide window. “I have work to do and this meeting is a waste of my time.”

  “Silver.” Skraf leaned forward on his desk. “I have no alternative. Unless you intend to leave the service and pursue other interests I have no alternative but to turn to you.”

  “No.” Silver pushed back off the desk. “You can’t make me do it.”

  “I must. Silver Cane, I called you to make permanent your role as Chief of Police.”

  “No.” Silver shouted. Just at that moment the doors opened and the robed civil servant ushered in a drone carrying a tray holding a pitcher of water with ice cubes clinking gently, two shining glasses with the light glinting off the cut crystal, and a plate of small syrup covered pastries.

  “You can’t be serious, Skraf,” Silver shouted. “There are no trained agents out there at the moment,”

  “That’s an exaggeration, Silver,” Skraf interrupted. “Carbon James. Lithium Trel. Iron Jax.”

  “Iron Jax?” Silver burst out.

  “He’s an experienced agent,” Skraf said smiling.

  “I wouldn’t trust Iron to detect his own pulse.”

  Standing up and walking around the desk Skraf laughed. “That’s unfair. He’s not that bad.” Skraf stepped over to the hovering drone. He took a glass and poured water from the pitcher. He offered the glass to Silver.

  Silver took the glass. It was heavy and cold. She felt a flush of anger still hot in her veins. The glass and the cool mint lemon water cooled her palm. She sent an instruction from her neural processor for her suit to cool her down a few degrees. She didn’t want to appear to be losing her cool in front of Skraf. She was angry but in control.

  “Iron Jax isn’t that good either,” she said before taking a sip.

  “What is your assessment of Carbon and Lithium?”

  “Carbon is a bit slow sometimes. Seems to dither and struggles to make decisions but he gets the job done. Lithium is a liability as often as not. Gets the wrong man too often.”

  “But his performance is within acceptable limits?”

  “He hasn’t been kicked off the service yet if that is what you mean. He’s good if you’re stuck in a corner but I wouldn’t send him on a job that required any tact or sensitivity.”

  The young civil servant backed out the door and let them close quietly behind him. Silver topped off her water and halted the cooling of her suit.

  “That still leaves Diamond Sax, Sodium Tipsi, and Zinc Denton.”

  “Rookies.” Silver shook her head. “Diamond and Sodium have only been in the field for a few months. I’ve only just finished training with Zinc. He hasn’t even been assigned his police cruiser or tac suit yet.”

  “But Zinc Denton passed the training with some of the best ratings of any trainee since,” Skraf looked at Silver, “since you. And you are training new recruits. They should be coming through the system soon.” Skraf tilted his head as if waiting for an answer.

  “The training environment is one thing. The criminals out there are real. It’s chaotic. They can’t learn everything in VR.”

  “Which is why they need to bloody their noses out in the system as soon as possible. And it’s why I need an experienced agent to take over the reins at PHQ to direct these agents. You can strategically deploy our limited personnel to achieve the best results.”

  Topping off his water and looking out across the waters of the Shoal, Skraf heaved a sigh. “The Police service took a real hammering when Coris destroyed PHQ. We lost a lot of good people that day. But we are lucky that our best was out in the field. Silver, you were the best there was, you are the best we have. It is up to you to take charge of the service.”

  Silver took a deep drink of the cold water, sharp and aromatic with lemon and mint. Skraf walked back behind his desk.

  “There is a lot to do. We need to train agents. We need to maintain our presence across the system. We need to manage our limited resources. You have to take all this on. And...” Skraf trailed off.

  “And?” Silver asked.

  “And, Gov Central AI does not believe the terrorist Coris was acting alone. The threat is still out there. We need you to be watchful and to identify any activity that may be connected with this hidden terrorist threat. You have been with your AI for some time now. Is it effective?”

  Placing the glass down on the tray heavily Silver nodded. “Yes. We’re an effective team.”

  Skraf nodded. “PHQ requires its own AI. You can keep contact with your personal AI but refer all service control matters to the new police AI.”

  Skraf shifted uneasily in his chair and swivelled side to side. “There’s just one more thing.”

  A Cutter Shark leaped out of the water far out in the bay. Silver watched as it twisted and fell back to the clear waters. “What else?” she said.

  “Your attire is not appropriate for a Chief of Police.”

  Silver turned and shot Skraf a sharp look.

  “You will have to surrender your tactical suit and draw an office suit.”

  “But I’ve been acting chief for months and I’ve not been required to return it.”

  “Sorry, Silver,” Skraf swiveled gently back and forth. “You are chief now.” Skraf looked down to his desk. A series of holographic documents appeared for him to review. “Construction has begun on a new PHQ here on Pepper but for now you will work from the temporary office on the Defender. You can keep your suit for the fligh
t back to the Defender but you will have to surrender it on arrival.”

  This was getting worse by the minute. Not only was Silver now shackled to a desk, but she had to give up her suit. She couldn’t see herself in the drab office suit the old chief wore. Yes, it was a suit highly tuned toward the role as administrator, facilitator, controller, and leader of one of the systems major services but it wasn’t her tac suit. At least she wasn’t going to wear the baggy robes of other civil servants.

  “Can I keep my blazer?” Silver said with a heavy tone.

  Flicking between documents Skraf barely looked up. “Don’t be bitter about it, Chief. Of course, you will keep your side arm.”

  The double door at the far end opened up smoothly. Silver turned toward it. Skraf called out as she walked away.

  “Welcome to hell, Chief. We live to serve, only to serve.”

  “Aren’t you upset?” Silver paced across the flight deck as Razor accelerated away from Pepper.

  “No, Chief. Why?” Arty replied.

  “Why?” Silver spat. “Because they just made you my butler.”

  “I was assigned to you long ago. I’m still assigned to you.”

  “They assigned you to an agent, Arty. Now I’ve got a new job with its own AI. What does that make you?”

  “I’m still your AI.”

  “But all police administration work has to be undertaken by the new police AI. What are you going to do?”

  “I will conduct myself according to your instructions.”

  “Why didn’t they just return your functionality to central AI? Or make you the new police AI.”

  “Familiarity with you has corrupted my program to such an extent that I could not return to central AI and it also makes me unsuitable for a role as police central AI?”