The holostage image flickered as it changed to display SV data from all across the re-education facility. Silver tapped one holographic image, the one of Coris sitting in a bare but comfortable room, a VR suit and helmet fastened in place.
“What is Coris currently doing in VR?” Silver asked.
“Jay Coris is currently engaged in a sanctioned private virtual reality session. His right to personnel and private space is protected as part of the re-education process.”
Silver knew the information was coming from the headquarter’s AI. Arty knew how to talk like a person, not a machine.
Silver received an alert that Neon had touched down and was connecting to the facility SV and AI. The raw recruit appeared on the holostage. Silver watched closely. Neon walked confidently through the facility. He was clearly being directed to Coris by the facility’s AI, but still Silver noticed a confidence in his step that she hadn’t noticed before. Maybe the rookie was benefiting from being thrown into the deep end. Maybe Neon responded better to real life situations than VR environments? Maybe there was hope for the new agent yet?
Silver requested audio from the facility. She wanted to hear what Neon was going to say to Coris, a man responsible for more loss of life and destruction of tech than the next ten criminals combined. Was there anything that hadn’t already been asked? Was there any way to draw more information out of the terrorist that hadn’t already been obtained by experienced educators, interrogators and psychologists?
Silver watched the holoimage of Coris sitting in the interview room. She watched with a renewed dislike for the criminal who had eluded her for so long. Somewhere deep down she also felt a grudging respect for this killer for the same reason. It had been a long and difficult investigation for her, and Coris had been difficult to stop. But she had kept after him until she won. It had been for the good of all the people of the system to lock up this man who would destroy anything for his own peculiar philosophy. She had done her duty and had been focused on the task, but now, in hindsight, she knew it had been an exciting case due mainly to all its importance and difficulty. Coris had been the most satisfying challenge she had ever faced as an agent.
The sound of the interview room door opening brought Silver back to focus. Despite her victory, there were terrorist bombs going off. Someone was continuing Coris’ work. There was a good chance Coris would have information on this new wave of bombings. Whether a raw rookie such as Neon could discover it was something that Silver seriously doubted. Agent Neon was out in the field for the first time, and he was coming up against the system’s most devious criminal.
Neon entered the room flanked by two of the facility’s conflict resolution specialists. He sat in the chair opposite Coris and smiled.
Silver could see the way Neon was intending to conduct the interview. He was attempting to display a friendly face hoping to build a friendly relationship and secure trust. And then secure the information.
Coris responded with a smile of his own. It was genuine and warm. Silver noticed how Neon relaxed with the positive response from Coris.
“He thinks he’s winning,” Silver said to herself. She sent a message to Carbon’s cruiser for an update on his arrival time at the facility. The response was swift but Carbon’s arrival would not be. Silver crossed her arms and watched carefully. Agent Neon was on his own.
Chapter 5
“How are you today Mr. Coris?” Neon asked cordially.
“Coris smiled. He slung an arm over the back of his chair and stretched out his legs. “Just fine, agent. I’m just fine. How are you?”
“He’s playing with you,” Silver said. If Neon was at all capable, surely he would see it.
“How do you find the facility here, sir? Satisfactory?” Neon projected a closed file on to the tabletop. A subtle hint to Coris that Neon was not here simply for pleasantries.
“It’s very comfortable. The re-education team are some of the most understanding and helpful people in the system. It’s a great endorsement of our enlightened society that we have facilities like this.”
“And are you finding the program useful?”
“Distracting,” Coris said. He looked up at the hololens. “Not as good as freedom, though.”
Silver knew Coris was looking toward whoever was observing his interview through that hololens. He couldn’t know it was Silver, the agent who had finally stopped him and his destructive rampage across the system.
Neon opened the file on the table. He flicked the projections about on the desk letting Coris see as much as he wanted. Finally, and deliberately, Neon left the image of the wreckage of a SV server for Coris to see.
“One of mine?” Coris asked, taking a look at the image.
“This was taken not long ago. Someone has picked up where you left off.” Neon leaned forward, as if to suggest he was taking Coris into his confidence. “We need to stop them before people get hurt.”
Looking up at the hololens again Coris said, “Another bomber? And I thought I was special.”
“You can be,” Neon said in a gentle and conciliatory manner. “You could help me find this person. If you could tell me about your motivation, about why you did what you did, maybe I could find this person and stop this destructive behavior.”
Silver looked at Neon. He was leaning forward in a friendly and almost submissive manner. He was making Coris feel in control. Maybe by giving Coris a feeling of power the one-time terrorist bomber would be encouraged to help stop other bombers. It was an interesting approach but one that Silver felt was doomed to fail.
Leaning forward and placing his hands on the table Coris looked at Neon and nodded. “What would I get out of it, do you think, apart from the satisfaction of helping out the forces of justice?”
Neon appeared a little stunned and tongue tied, Silver thought.
“We could try and get you some additional benefits.” Neon suggested.
“More ice cream?” Coris suggested.
Neon nodded uncertainly.
“More private VR time.” Coris leaned even closer to Neon. “I’m developing a bit of a relationship with a young lady at the pool hall I like to frequent.” Coris reached out and put a hand on Neon’s shoulder. The two facility specialists took a sudden step forward. “Or you could let me go.” Coris sat back. He looked at the specialists, his hands raised in submission.
“Maybe we could find a way to release you back to wider society,” Neon began in a faltering and uncertain voice.
“Release me so I can get back to bombing the oppressive SV that condemns us all to prison?” Coris suggested.
Neon sat back in his chair. Silver could see he was not making the progress the rookie clearly hoped for.
“People are getting hurt, Mr. Coris,” Neon pleaded.
“People are being freed,” Coris countered.
“We will stop them,” Neon said.
“So why bother me?” Coris replied. “You guys usually bring gifts when you are trying to get an old crim like me on your side. So, did you bring any cigarettes? Liquor? A fully fueled space craft so I can get out of here?”
Silver watched Coris closely. Surely his goal was to escape this facility. It was extremely well secured and central AI had devised an inescapable system and no criminal sent to a re-education facility had ever left before being fully cleared for release. But Coris was devious and clever. Silver worried that Neon had just delivered him the key to his escape, a green rookie agent with no experience and a police cruiser parked on one of the landing bays.
“Don’t tell him where your cruiser is,” Silver muttered. She sent a message to Carbon to encourage him to greater speed and to get to the facility as soon as possible.
One thing Silver found impressive about Neon was how the rookie wasn’t perturbed by Coris and his evasive conversation. Coris was enjoying toying with this agent. Silver wondered if Coris had yet realized how green Neon really was. Coris would never believe the service would send a raw recruit to interview him
. He was clever, but like all intelligent criminals, he was also arrogant. He would expect the service to send a specialist, an expert. Silver hoped that Coris would think that Neon was just acting naive.
The conversation went on. Silver kept the hololink open but shrank it down to the side of the large office holostage as she checked on the progress of her small team of agents. Carbon was getting closer and that eased her concerns about Neon somewhat.
Then Silver’s attention was drawn back to the ongoing interview between her newest agent and Coris. Silver opened the holoimage up fully as she saw sudden movement in the interview room. Her nerves were almost immediately calmed as she saw it was Neon jumping up from his seat. He slammed his hands down on the table and was bellowing at Coris. The two specialists were standing ready to interrupt and use their conflict resolution abilities. Coris was the only one in the room to appear relaxed as he sat back in his chair smiling broadly at the animated Neon.
“Got to you pretty quickly,” Silver said to herself as Neon pushed away from the table and turned to the door.
“Open the door,” Neon shouted, waving his arm wildly. “Chief?” Neon said with a look to the hololens. “Chief Silver?” Neon said. “I can’t get anything out of this bastard.” Neon marched out of the door in anger.
Coris looked up at the hololens smiling. He knew he was looking Silver in the eye. “Chief?” Coris asked, smiling still. “You moved up quickly,” he said. “You didn’t ever strike me as the office type. I thought you were a field agent through and through.” He placed his hands on his chest and adopted a humble expression. “It will always be my proudest achievement that I had a small part in your assent to the very top of the service, Chief Silver.”
Silver closed the holographic image of the interview room, the image of a humble and grinning Coris the last thing she saw as the image flickered away. She sent a message to Neon telling him to leave the facility and to return to the Defender and the temporary police HQ.
Silver silently cursed the man even as, deep down, she knew she was impressed with the devious old crim and how he’d caused Neon to crumble into an agitated and angry mess. She felt a smile tug at the corner of her mouth. She stopped it tugging any further and adopted her usual professional countenance. “Good riddance,” she breathed.
Silver contacted Skraf at Gov central in no mood for pleasantries.
“What can I do for you, Chief,” Skraf asked, not looking up from his work.
“You can stop interfering with my department. You sent that trainee to interview Coris. The old devil just destroyed agent Neon. He should never have been released from training.”
Skraf’s hologram looked at Silver. He was displayed actual size and Silver was practically nose to nose with the bureaucrat. “I didn’t release him. I will find out who did. Is there anything else?”
“Do the specialists on the re-education facility know how dangerous Coris is?”
“Let them do their job. They know what they’re doing.”
“Just make sure.”
“I’ll take it up with the president at our next meeting. Good bye, Chief.”
The holographic image of Skraf shrank away. Silver felt a flush of heat rush through her body, frustration at Neon’s sudden appointment, frustration at Coris’ cocksure attitude, frustration at her lack of resources and at her appointment as Chief. She was a field agent, not a desk jockey.
Ordering a pitcher of cold sparkling water to be brought to her, Silver also sent an instruction to her suit to lower its temperature a few degrees and cool her down a little. She did it almost without thinking, an autonomic response. She was so used to her suit that it was practically part of her. Then she realized she still hadn’t surrendered it and adopted the more formal office wear expected of a police chief. Perhaps she would begin a new standard, Chiefs to be equipped with tac suits. She was chief now, she could write it into the terms for the next incoming chief. She hoped that it would be sooner rather than later so she could return to the work she was best at, her work as a field agent.
Agent Carbon appeared on the holostage. “Approaching the facility now, Chief,” Carbon reported. “How is that rookie getting on?”
Silver checked the location of Neon. He was well on his way to the Defender. “The rookie has concluded his interrogation,” Silver said diplomatically. She didn’t rate Neon as an agent, he was also a poor trainee but there was no need to prejudice the opinion of the rest of the agent core.
“Did he get his green ass kicked?” Carbon asked. The old agent was slow in his investigations but he had a quick wit.
“I don’t think he was as effective as he hoped to be,” Silver conceded. “As you are there, agent Carbon,” Silver went on, “do you think you might like to take a crack at our old friend Coris? Maybe he’ll tell you who’s out there bombing SV servers.”
“I can ask.” Carbon sat forward in his chair, a quiet confidence noticeable in his bearing.
“See what you can do, but don’t take too long. I need you in the field.”
The holographic image suddenly disappeared. Silver didn’t think Carbon would end the call so abruptly. It wasn’t his style at all. Silver instructed the holostage to re-establish the connection to Carbon’s cruiser. A message appeared informing her that the connection was unavailable. Silver sent a message from her neural processor directly to Carbon. Silver’s neural processor informed her that the message was not received. Concern quickly grew and she instructed the holostage to display the feed from the landing stage where Carbon’s cruiser was due to land. That holoimage was also unavailable.
“Connect me to the facilities AI,” Silver leaned on the edge of the holostage. An image was displayed. Silver couldn’t make out what she was seeing at first and then she realized, it was a burning ball of fire in the vacuum of space. An orbiting drone high above the facility was relaying the only image available from the vicinity. The facility had been destroyed in a catastrophic explosion. All that remained was a burning ball of fire. It expanded toward the orbiting drone until the drone too was consumed by the fire.
A bomb. Another fricking bomb. A massive explosive detonation sufficient to destroy the entire re-education facility. Silver stared blankly at the holostage, turning the problem over in her head. Why? Some criminal acts were wanton and motiveless. Some were sudden and impulsive. And then there were some that were deliberate, premeditated, and designed to achieve a particular goal. Coris did have knowledge of the individuals or the group that was targeting system SV. She was convinced that he wasn’t a lone wolf determined to free the people by his independent acts. He was a member of a group, a movement that was determined to cause as much destruction to SV as it could. He had knowledge of that group attacking the system’s tech. He had been a willing participant in a system wide conspiracy, and now he was dead.
Silver refused another call from Skraf. The bureaucrat was clearly trying to get information about the latest bombing. Silver was too busy for that little man in his massive office. He wasn’t her boss. In many ways Silver was autonomous. She had complete control over the service. The only person she had to answer to now was the system president and he rarely got involved in the affairs of the various agencies working across the system.
Skraf could request information from Silver. She didn’t have to provide it, not immediately at least.
Sending an agent to the scene of the devastation was absolutely necessary. She looked at her resources. Limited. He had requested the assignment. Silver considered sending Lithium. She knew he was capable but she didn’t want to send her most experienced agents to all the cases. She decided to send Zinc Denton.
Zinc appeared on the holostage. He was still wearing his training suit. A police cruiser had been dispatched to him but the tac suit was still unavailable. Silver considered sending him hers. As unusual as it was to send an agent out on a job not fully equipped, this was an unusual time. The service was devastated and barely able to function. Rookies were being sent to
jobs only experienced agents would normally take on. But Silver knew Zinc and the young man was good. He was all the things Silver thought made a good agent. He was intelligent. He was quick thinking. He was brave and he was flexible and creative in his thinking. It was a simple task to go to the scene of the devastation, to close off the vicinity to all space traffic and record the remaining evidence.
“Just follow your training and you will do fine.” Silver finished her prep talk. She was still new to her role of dispatching agents and she certainly never thought she’d be sending out a raw recruit but she had a feeling that Zinc would be a great agent, in time.
“Thank you, Chief.” Zinc said. “I won’t let you down. His holographic image shrank away.
Silver sat in the mess hall nearest her temporary office. She was deaf to the noise around from the officers and crew who moved around, chatted, and laughed. Chairs scraped across the floor and plates clattered against each other. She dipped a stale croissant into her strong coffee. As she chewed at the pastry, she turned the facts over in her mind. The bomb attack on the re-education facility was alarming enough. But she had also lost contact with one of her most experienced and capable agents. The service was stretched far too thinly. Silver knew the services effectiveness was virtually zero.
With the destruction of police HQ and the destruction of surveillance servers across the system, Silver had precious few resources at her disposal. And now the killing of Coris, her only link to the bombers and best chance of discovering more about the source of these attacks, was lost to her. Worse still, Silver was unable to mount any kind of effective investigation into the bombings. She dunked her disappointing croissant into the coffee and took another bite.
Defense (Silver Cane Book 2) Page 3