Spy, Spy Away

by Diane Henders

  “No, you’ll be…” I groped for something encouraging to say. “…here to help me with the pain when I come out. I really missed you last week.”

  His frown eased. “Thanks.” He opened his mouth as if to speak, but apparently thought better of what he’d intended to say. He stepped over to kneel near Yana’s body instead, examining the fallen weapon without touching it.

  I went to hunker down on the other side, carefully avoiding the business end.

  On examination, it didn’t look quite as much like the white glass bottle I’d mistaken it for, but it was still close enough to hide in a group of other bottles. There was even a threaded ring on the neck end that looked like a bottle cap. The end of it was flipped up, revealing what looked like a lens beneath.

  “Sighting system,” Kane muttered, hunching down to peer through it. “I can’t tell if there’s a trigger, though.” He sat back, frowning. “There must be a way to activate the beam or ray or whatever it is. Can you see any irregularity? It just looks like a smooth cylinder to me.”

  “It looks smooth to me, too. But maybe it’s something to do with the… I don’t know what to call it… muzzle?” I pointed at the silvery bottom. “That’s the end she was pointing at Thomas. Maybe it’s automatic when a target is acquired?”

  “That doesn’t make sense. You couldn’t carry it around if it automatically beamed out a death ray every time it acquired a target.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” I pressed my cheek against the carpet to peek through the lens. “And it must have some kind of built-in power supply. So it couldn’t be on all the time or it would run down.” I shot a nervous glance at the muzzle, pointed at the side of the seat. “Do you think it’s on now?”

  Kane’s lips twisted. “Who knows? And I’m not planning to put my hand in front of it and find out.”

  “Well, we can’t just leave it here. What if we hit turbulence and it starts rolling around?”

  “Good point.” He frowned. “It must have been safe enough in the beverage cart. Yana didn’t seem nervous when Thomas brought our champagne.”

  I drew a breath of relief. “Right. So if we close the top and hold it by the neck the way she did and just put it back in the cart, it should be fine.”

  I reached for it, but Kane grabbed my hand. “I don’t want to compromise any evidence. If there are fingerprints or anything else on it, we need to preserve them.” He rose and moved to the closet to delve into his coat pockets. “Lucky it’s winter where we’re going.”

  He pulled on his leather gloves and squatted beside the weapon again. “Stand behind me. Just in case.”

  Pulse pounding, I obeyed, holding my breath while he carefully closed the cap and stood the weapon among the other bottles in the serving cart once again.

  We both exhaled when it clinked into place without incident. Kane returned his gloves to his bag, and we sank into the soft leather seats again.

  “All right,” Kane said. “So give Dermott as much information as you can about the weapon and tell him our theory about Parr’s smuggling operation. And maybe he can find somebody to give us some pointers for landing. Although…” The lines of strain tightened in his face. “…I don’t know how they could do that without using the radio. And you can’t talk to me when you’re in the network.” He blew out a breath. “Maybe Webb can figure something out.”

  My heart clenched.

  “What?” Kane demanded. “What is it?”

  “Spider doesn’t work there anymore.” My voice was a bare whisper. “He got fired.”

  I sank my head into my hands. “God, we’re so fucked. I don’t even know if I can get to Sirius and back again. I might get lost in the internet and you’ll never know. You’ll just be sitting here with my zombie body until the plane falls out of the sky…”

  Kane’s arms closed around me. “That won’t happen.” He gave me a little shake. “It won’t happen,” he repeated. “You always find a way. And if you get lost, I’ll guide you back.” He smiled. “I’ll search for camels.”

  Chapter 45

  After a lengthy and convoluted trip, I found the Sirius network and made my usual nerve-shattering trip through the chaotic tumble of data. By the time I slid into the familiar file repository after five tries, I had to fight the urge to curl up in the corner and tremble invisibly for a while.

  Instead, I pushed my avatar into a visible form and fired off an email to Dermott: “Meet me in the virtual file room, now! Emergency!”

  Then I waited.

  Paced.

  Dammit, where the hell was he? Everybody in Sirius had to carry a security fob, and I knew his would contain the built-in brainwave modulator that would get him into the virtual reality network. He should be able to appear instantly from anywhere in the building.

  A sudden fear seized me and I checked the system time. Goddammit, Vegas was in a different time zone. In Silverside, it was nearly five o’clock on a Friday afternoon.

  Shit, shit, shit!

  Without much hope, I sent a slightly politer version of the same distress call to Jack and Germain, the only other people with a high enough security clearance to know about my project.

  Jack would likely be home with her kids already. Germain… who knew? He might have even gone back to Calgary. With nobody to guard in the network, he wouldn’t have any reason to stay.

  I groaned aloud. How could I come this far only to fail?

  What if I emailed Spider?

  I considered that for a moment, but there wasn’t much point. He had no access to Sirius, and if Dermott was already gone for the weekend, Spider wouldn’t be able to find him anyway.

  Despair trickled into my veins, and I slid slowly down the virtual wall to sit on the floor, my forehead pressed to my drawn-up knees. Alone in an abandoned network. I hadn’t realized how much hope I’d been nurturing until it was snuffed out.

  I clenched my fists in my hair. Dammit, I wouldn’t quit. At least I could file reports on the weapon and the security leak. Even if nobody found them until long after Kane and I were greasy smears on the runway, that information could still help somebody else.

  I was hauling myself to my feet when the door burst open and Jack, Germain, and Dermott dashed in.

  The deluge of renewed hope almost swept me away. Tears burned the backs of my eyes as my heart leaped up from my toes to pound a triumphant tattoo against my ribs.

  “What the hell, Kelly?” Dermott snapped.

  “We have the prototype weapon.” My words tumbled out. “But we’re trapped on a plane and the pilots are dead and we can’t fly.” I made an attempt to untangle my narrative. “I mean, the autopilot is working but we don’t know how to land-”

  “What kind of plane?”

  “What’s the weapon?”

  Germain and Dermott spoke simultaneously. Germain shot a look at Dermott. “Plane first. We need to keep them in the air.”

  Dermott nodded, and Germain’s keen eyes focused on me again. “What kind of plane, Aydan?”

  “A jet…” At his frown, I blurted, “I don’t know! It’s white with a blue stripe…” I shook myself and drew a deep breath. “It’s Parr’s private jet. Or one of them, anyway. It’s big, about the size of a regular passenger jet, with the cockpit in front… oh, Jesus, I know they all do, sorry… then some closets and a front cabin and a big sitting room and another cabin and a bathroom and bedroom in the back-”

  “It’s okay, Aydan, never mind,” Germain said gently. “How long have you been in the air? When are you scheduled to land?”

  “We’ve been up for less than an hour. We aren’t scheduled to land for another couple of hours. Carl…” I hesitated, not sure I wanted to know the answer. “…will the autopilot… turn off? Is it programmed to do that?”

  “No. Autopilot has to be manually disengaged.”

  “Oh thank God.” I was about to slither down the wall again when I remembered I was in a sim. With a wave of my hand I conjured up a chair and dropped into
it. A moment later I realized my rudeness, and waved three more chairs into existence.

  “Okay,” Dermott said as he sat. “So we’ve got time. Good. Give me a full report.”

  I reeled off a blow-by-blow of the action and our deductions as quickly as possible, and took advantage of our virtual reality environment to create a simulation of the weapon.

  Dermott leaned in to peer without touching it, as Kane had done. “How realistic is this simulation, Kelly? Any guts in it?”

  “I don’t know what the guts would be, but don’t get in front of it. We’re in a virtual reality sim. If any of us expects it to work…”

  Dermott recoiled. “Shit. Get rid of it.”

  I waved it out of existence and leaned back with a sigh. “So I guess that’s it until we have to try to land the plane.”

  Germain turned to Dermott. “We need a list of Parr’s fleet and the flight plans for whatever they’ve got in the sky today so we can figure out what they’re flying. And we’ll need to contact the Calgary airport-”

  “No,” I interrupted. “We can’t let them know there’s anything wrong. That’s why we didn’t radio for help. We figure Fuzzy Bunny is monitoring all the transmissions, and we’re pretty sure they have somebody planted inside the airport’s secured perimeter. Probably food and beverage services, and who knows what else. If they find out things aren’t going according to their plan, they’ll just vanish.”

  “I’m sorry, Aydan, we have to notify the airport,” Germain said. He hesitated. “I hate to say this, but your chances aren’t good. It takes a lot of skill to land any aircraft, and the size of jet you’re describing…” Jack squeezed his arm as if to silence him, her face white, and he shook his head before turning back to me. “Sorry, I have to say it. If we can find out what you’re flying, I can probably guide you through the landing procedures…”

  “Wait, you’re a jet pilot?” I demanded.

  He gave his usual self-deprecating shrug and nod. “Transport specialist. If it rolls, floats, or flies, I’ve probably driven or piloted it at least once.”

  I clutched my chest. “Thank God!”

  He gave me a long look, his dark eyes filled with compassion. “But, Aydan, even if I give you instructions over the radio, your chances of landing successfully are slim. It would be criminally negligent not to notify the airport of an impending crash. If they know something’s wrong, they’ll clear the runways. If they don’t, hundreds of innocent people could die with you. I’m sorry.”

  I groaned. “God, I wish the pilot was still alive. He was so good I never even felt it when we touched down yesterday. He probably could’ve surfed the net with one hand and landed the plane with the other.”

  “Yeah…” Germain’s head jerked up. “Wait. What did you say?”

  “Um…” My pulse quickened under his intent gaze. “I said he probably could’ve-”

  “Did he have a tablet computer? In the cockpit?”

  “Yes.” I swallowed, afraid to even wish. “Is that good?”

  “Maybe. Maybe not.” He made an equivocating gesture, but hope had ignited his eyes. “It might mean the aircraft has a computer control system. A lot of pilots use tablets to plot their courses, and sometimes the tablet software can communicate with the onboard system.” He sprang up to pace. “If I had a way to access that… damn, but I don’t know how I could. Maybe if you could tell me what was onscreen… but then we’d need a radio connection and that would blow your cover. Dammit!”

  Inspiration exploded in my brain. I spun to face Dermott. “Get Spider! Hire him back! Offer him whatever it takes, but get him back, now! He can hack into the computer in the plane and Carl can fly us home!”

  Dermott didn’t hesitate. With a single nod, he launched out of his chair and sprinted for the portal.

  “Aydan.” Germain laid a gentle hand on my arm. “I don’t want to be a wet blanket, but the tablet might not mean anything. And even if there is a computer control system, the interface might not work. And if I’m not actually in the cockpit…”

  I tried to tamp down my hope and failed. “But even if the plane doesn’t have computer control, most tablets have webcams. At least if we end up having to do it ourselves, we could put the webcam in the pilot’s seat so you could see what we see.”

  He hesitated. “That might help,” he agreed quietly.

  I chose not to consider what that pause meant. “While we wait for Spider, I’m going to go back and tell John what we’re doing so he doesn’t worry.” When Germain’s brow furrowed, I gave him an imploring look. “I know you don’t want to get our hopes up, but what harm can it do? In a couple of hours, we might be dead. We might as well enjoy a little hope while we can.”

  He nodded and gave me a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “You’re right.” He gave me a quick hug. “Go tell Kane.”

  Back in the internet, I retraced my path with slow determination, leaving my tiny markers in place and ignoring the frightened little voice that tried to convince me I might never find the Sirius servers again. Winding through labyrinthine data tunnels, I held my concentration steady, alert for the slightest whisper of camels.

  And at last, there it was.

  I raced down the pathway to my goal.

  “Aaah! Jesus! Sonuvabitch!” When I stepped out the portal, the familiar agony seemed even more outrageous after the wonderful painlessness of the new key. I writhed and swore until Kane’s strong hands locked around my temples, extinguishing the pain.

  I went limp and pried my eyes open. “Thank you. You have no idea how much I missed that.”

  He smiled, but the expression had to fight its way past the tense lines in his face. “Did you get through?”

  “Yes.” I sat up. “We might have some good news.”

  “I could use some.”

  I gave him a smile. “I just got Spider re-hired. And the plane might be computer-controlled, and if I can bring Spider in through the network, he might be able to hook it up to Sirius, and if he can, Carl might be able to land the plane for us.”

  “Those are a lot of ‘might’s and ‘if’s.”

  But some of the tension went out of his shoulders nonetheless.

  I squeezed his hand. “I have to go back to Sirius now. I hope it won’t take Dermott long to get Spider there, but I don’t know how long it’ll take me to find Sirius again. I might be a while.”

  “All right. I’ll keep doing the camel searches.”

  He sounded as calm and confident as ever, but a tiny inflection in his voice suddenly reminded me how horrible it must be for him to be forced to sit doing nothing, surrounded by dead people and watching my oblivious body while he waited to die in a plane crash.

  I laid a hand on his. “I didn’t get my kiss for luck last time,” I said softly. “I could use one.”

  “So could I.” His arms closed around me and his lips met mine in a slow, gentle kiss.

  A kiss that gave instead of taking. No demand or expectation behind it. A kiss that could stop time itself…

  He broke the kiss to gather me in, tucking me close to his heart. His lips moved against my hair. “Good luck.”

  I tightened my arms around him before pulling away.

  “Thanks.” I slipped back into the network without meeting his eyes.

  It took a long, long time to find my way back to Sirius in spite of my markers. When I finally burst into the file repository after four shattering attempts, I could only lie curled in a trembling ball, abjectly grateful for my invisibility while I shook with tearless sobs.

  I allowed myself only a few moments before yanking my emotions back under control. Rising, I drew a deep breath and faded into visibility.

  “Aydan!” Spider flung himself at me, hugging me fiercely. “Oh, Aydan…”

  His greeting undid me completely, and I made good use of virtual reality to banish my tears to invisibility.

  “Hey, Spider,” I said when I thought I could trust my voice. “Good to have you back.”
/>
  I gently disengaged myself from his hug to take stock. The sim had been furnished while I had been lost in the internet. Germain was barely visible behind a bank of computer screens. Jack had her own desk and computer, and when she looked up her eyes burned like blue flames above her stark white cheeks.

  Spider slid behind a third desk littered with computer gear and within seconds he was riveted to his screen while he typed furiously.

  Dermott stood to the side, feet widely planted, arms crossed, but not as if in anger. He looked more like a man physically restraining himself from rushing into some kind of action.

  Germain looked up from his monitors. “Welcome back,” he said. “Webb’s got me patched into the Calgary control tower…”

  He made a ‘calm-down’ gesture as my eyes widened. “…without their knowledge,” he added. “I’ve pulled specs and flight simulator data for your aircraft. The good news is, it’s a 737…” he hesitated, apparently realizing the model would mean nothing to me. “…it’s one I can fly,” he finished instead. “The bad news is, I’ve never flown that specific model, and we can’t bring in a qualified pilot even if we could find one in time because…” He waved a hand at our virtual file room and grimaced. “Well, classified. Obviously. And, uh… its base model doesn’t have the kind of computer control I was hoping for.”

  I felt the blood drain from my face, and he hastened to add, “But it’s a custom build and Webb is still tracking down the manufacturer’s as-built drawings. Don’t give up hope yet.”

  “Got it,” Spider rapped out. “Over to you now.”

  Germain vanished behind his screens again. A moment later he hissed a fierce, “Yes!” When he looked up, his eyes blazed with triumph. “It’s got the upgraded module! Get on it, Webb. Get me in.”

  Spider rose, looking worried. “I don’t know how this is going to work, Aydan. I need you to carry me along the network like you did before so I can get to the tablet operating system. Then you’ll have to get out of the network at that end so you can plug the tablet into the plane’s computer control module. And I don’t know if I’ll get kicked out of the network when you leave. Probably.”