Alina nodded. “That’s what caught our eye. A record was flagged concerning the observatory, and their primary funding came from Vand Foundation grants, but we’re not sure if that means anything. The Foundation funds a lot of scientific research, and not just in astronomy, but it’s hard to ignore that we have a conveniently exploding observatory flagged on a file hidden on a data rod that someone tried to take with them to the grave. There are a few other possible leads, but that one stands out.”
Erik grunted in frustration. Sometimes he preferred the straightforward hostility of terrorists to the byzantine machinations of the conspiracy. A gun-and-grenade battle was preferable to maneuvering in the shadows.
“Why would they care about an observatory?” Erik asked.
“That’s what I’ve been asking myself.” Alina tapped her PNIU again, then made quick motions with her hands. A 2D diagram of the Solar System appeared, along with thousands of orbital paths.
“What are all those?” Erik asked.
“Cometary orbits,” Alina explained. “That is what the observatory’s research was focused on from what we could pull. This is where things get even more suspicious. That observatory should have been sending data backups to Earth, but a lot of the terrestrial-side data is missing, even older data. The comet-tracking wasn’t the stuff of legends, and the researchers involved weren’t well-known in their field.”
Jia started circling the orbital path data window, staring at it from different angles. “Point a telescope at something, and it might find something you didn’t want other people to find. Space is a big place, but there are a lot of people looking at it.”
“Not saying that’s crazy,” Erik replied, “but what are they trying to hide?”
Jia froze, her face a rigid, serious mask. “The conspiracy’s headquarters, maybe? We’ve been assuming they’re on Earth, but what if they aren’t?” She looked up at him. “There are so many space stations and facilities spread out in the Solar System, it wouldn’t be impossible to set up something closer to the HTP. Orders to Earth might get delayed by hours, but they’d still be close enough to Earth if they needed something and close enough to the HTP to escape if someone like us looked like we were on our way.”
“You’re telling me these people could seriously hide a base in the Solar System?” Erik shook his head. “This isn’t the frontier.”
“That makes it more possible, not less,” Alina interrupted. “It’s not like it’s going to have a flashing neon sign saying ‘Conspiracy base,’ but there’s a reason that observatory record was flagged, and I don’t believe enough in coincidence to accept the observatory conveniently blew itself up. As I noted, it wasn’t the only lead we could pull from that data, but it’s the one that stands out the most.”
“Then we need to figure out what the observatory found.”
“My people are doing that, with the help of specialists who are trying to find other potential sources for the data. I’ll let you know.” Alina frowned and glanced down at her PNIU. “I’ve got to go, but I’d suggest you stick around Neo SoCal. If they finish the jumpship early, I want you, Jia, and Emma ready for tests.”
Erik didn’t say anything else as Alina walked toward a flitter he hadn’t even noticed upon entry. The jump drive would be ready soon, and if Jia’s theory was correct, they might be able to end the conspiracy sooner than he’d ever dreamed.
He wanted to believe that, but it sounded too easy.
Chapter Thirty-Two
May 8, 2230, Neo Southern California Metroplex, En Route to the Apartment of Erik Blackwell
Erik hummed quietly to himself as his MX 60 soared through the sky. Traffic was surprisingly light that morning. The other flitters formed small streams rather than the choked rivers of metal he was used to seeing.
He didn’t have a complaint.
Sometimes he thought about taking the MX 60 away from the metro and just having a good time where there weren’t so many obstacles. He liked the vehicle, but he’d never appreciated it as anything other than a tool.
Erik shook his head as he changed lanes. The MX 60 was supposed to be a shield, a disguise to make people think he was a middle-aged man attempting to reclaim his youth. Now he wanted to take it for a joy ride and was worrying about how to properly set up his penjing scenes aboard the Argo.
Despite all the bizarre missions and dangerous foes, something had happened. He had a life and a reason for living besides revenge.
He wasn’t what he’d been when he’d arrived on Earth: a rootless specter bent on vengeance. Normalcy always forced its way into a man’s life, no matter how abnormal it had become.
“Can I ask you something, Emma?” Erik asked.
She materialized in the seat next to him, dressed in a high-necked dark gown that looked about four centuries out of date. Then she added a small fan to her ensemble.
“Yes,” Emma replied. “I reserve the right not to answer if I don’t want to.”
“Okay. You’ve changed since you found out the truth about where you came from.” Erik gently guided the flitter into yet a new lane. Traffic was beginning to thicken.
“That’s not a question. That’s a statement, but I won’t deny the accuracy in my case. Is that a problem?”
“No, it’s not a problem. I can tell you’ve changed in some ways, but in other ways, you’re the exact same, uh, AI you’ve always been. And then you do other things that are different, like all the outfits.”
Emma unfolded her fan and hid the bottom of her face with it. “Is that a problem? It’s just a way of expressing personal creativity. I could change my form, I suppose, but I find myself bound to it in a deep-seated way. I presume that is a reflection of the true nature of my creation.”
“Do you think…” Erik stared at one of the rear camera feeds, his hands tightening on the control yoke.
“What is it?” Emma asked.
Erik’s routine of checking his sensors and camera feeds was so ingrained that he sometimes wasn’t consciously aware of it, but the gray flitter in the feed jogged his memory.
His personal conversation would have to wait.
“I saw that flitter about fifteen minutes ago, and shortly after I lifted off.” Erik narrowed his eyes, trying to keep his paranoia from running away with him. “He was about two lengths behind me. I recognize the slight discoloration on the window. I’ve changed lanes and directions a bunch of times.”
“Interesting,” Emma commented. “I don’t pay low-level attention to every flitter in the feed, but now that you mention it, that discoloration is consistent with a particular type of illegal optical scrambling technology.”
“What?” Erik glanced at her before returning his attention to the path in front of them.
“Let me show you the magnified feed,” Emma replied.
The camera feed zoomed in on the windshield of the gray flitter. The interior was blurry and irregular, though there was clearly someone behind the wheel.
“Use of such a device in most metros is a misdemeanor,” Emma announced.
“Yeah, I know.” Erik abruptly dove into a new lane. “But it strikes me as too sloppy for the conspiracy. He’s going to get a ticket from traffic drones or cameras picking it up.”
The gray flitter followed him into the new lane.
“There’s also evidence of a fake transponder signal,” Emma reported. “At the minimum, it doesn’t match the model of flitter behind you.”
“I could wait before a patrol flitter picks him up. Nah, screw this.” Erik ground his teeth. “If this asshole wants to play, then let’s play.” He patted his holster to confirm what his mind told him was there. “If he’s here to kill me, he better finish me off right away.”
“Shall I contact the authorities or Jia?” Emma asked.
“Not yet. No reason to spin everybody up until I know what’s going on. It might be another dumbass reporter or fanboy trying to get my autograph.”
Erik slowed and looked around for a relatively
empty parking platform. He could head all the way into the Shadow Zone, but that might attract police attention and help he didn’t need. The conspiracy needed to be handled his way, not their way.
“We’ll send him a direct message,” Erik explained. “Keep it point-to-point laser. I don’t want anyone else intercepting it.”
“Very well.” Emma sighed, weary resignation in the sound. “Ready when you are.”
“Okay,” Erik began. “This is Erik Blackwell to whoever is in the flitter behind me, but I figure you already know that.” He added a threatening growl as punctuation.
Emma rolled her eyes. “Really?”
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” Erik continued. “We’re going to land together at the next parking platform. If you don’t do that, I’m going to assume you’re hostile, and I’m going to do whatever I need to do to take you out. You know my reputation. Blackwell out.”
He pushed on the yoke and adjusted his speed, heading toward the end of a half-empty parking platform. The other flitter matched his course and speed without any gunfire or missiles.
A good start to not risking innocent lives or attracting cop attention.
Erik finished pulling into a parking spot. “If he somehow takes me out, light him up with the turret, but make sure you keep it at an angle.”
Emma sniffed. “I know how to kill people without collateral damage.”
Erik slipped his hand into his coat and gripped his pistol before stepping out of the MX 60. He stayed crouched, more than prepared to use the armor of the vehicle to save his life if this turned into a clumsy ambush.
He took a deep breath and prepared to draw, more annoyed than worried.
When the door of the gray flitter opened, Erik dropped his hand and scoffed. “You’ve got to be kidding me! What the hell are you doing?”
Garth stepped out of the flitter, his eyes darting back and forth. “It is a bad idea to meet here, Erik. I should have known you’d pick up that I was following you, but I had to make sure you weren’t being followed first. They would know I’d go to you eventually. This is dangerous, but it didn’t have to be this bad. But you didn’t respond to my message. If you had, this would have all been different.” His speaking speed increased, the words slurring together. “What did you expect me to do? Did you expect me to call you directly and tell you the truth over an insecure line? That was too much a danger, but now here we are sitting in the middle of Neo SoCal, waiting for an orbital strike to take us out, and I—”
“Shut up,” Erik said and shook a fist. “What the hell are you talking about, Garth? I always thought you were okay if a bit strange, but that was before you started stalking me. This isn’t funny. If this is just about getting together for a drink, I don’t get why you needed the visual scrambler and all that other garbage. You’re lucky I didn’t call the cops on you.”
Garth threw his hands in the air. “Because I’m trying to get the truth out without anyone else getting killed. Don’t you get it? People are dying, and they don’t want anyone to know the truth. You of all people should get that. You took down corrupt politicians, rich people. You were even involved in that dirty cop case recently, and you’re not a cop anymore!”
“Get to the point, Garth, before I get bored and call the cops on your ass.” Erik cracked his knuckles. “Or I handle you my own way. I don’t like people following me around. You think you’re paranoid? Come back to me when you’ve had people trying to kill you.”
“I do!” Garth screamed.
Erik snorted. “Bullshit.”
“I made a critical mistake,” Garth replied, his voice lower. “We all did. I thought they’d mostly be inactive in their platypus form, not all that interested in low-level investigation. I knew they probably had human agents, but I figured the news wouldn’t be enough for a small group of investigators. I’ve been trying to be careful, but now I realize what an idiot I’ve been. Using my own name on a forum! Not that it did any good. Just ask White Rabbit.”
“Who the hell is White Rabbit?”
“Another dead member of the Brigade.” Garth slammed his fist so hard against his flitter that he winced. “Don’t you understand how statistically unlikely it is for so many deadly incidents to happen to a group of people not geographically collocated in such a short time?”
Erik leaned over the top of his flitter, his annoyance building with each deranged sentence that came out of Garth’s mouth. “People get in accidents all the time. Is that what this is about? Some conspiracy friend of yours got in a wreck, and now you’re convinced you’re being targeted, by who, the Navigators?”
Garth bobbed his head, his eyes achieving the wild state that only true passion or insanity could muster. “Exactly. If not them, then their human servants, but I suspect it’s them directly. All I wanted to do was bring the truth to the world, but now my life is in danger. I know you don’t believe me about the Navigators, but you can’t explain away so many people dying.”
“Name a person who is dead.”
“Minho Lee,” Garth replied. “Look it up. He lives in Toronto. Excuse me, lived.”
Erik pretended to tap his PNIU as he waited for Emma to anticipate his needs.
“There was a man by that name who committed suicide last week in Toronto,” Emma explained.
“Your friend killed himself, Garth,” Erik offered, softening his voice. Maybe the tragedy had finally sent the man over the edge.
“Oh, yeah. Killed himself.” Garth made air quotes around the last two words. “He killed himself two hours after sending me a message that said he’d made a major discovery about the incident we were investigating. Come on, Erik, how convenient is that? And Tim Jacks in Chicago? How do you explain that?”
“Tim Jacks died in a flitter accident two days after Minho Lee,” Emma explained. “He was under the influence of multiple substances, according to the public police reports.”
“That is just a bunch of random coincidences,” Erik muttered. “No one’s coming to kill you for your Navigator crap, Garth. I don’t believe you. No one believes you.”
The other man burst out laughing. “If only that was the case.” He wiped away tears. “I spent years hoping someone other than the Brigade would listen to me, but you know what they say: be careful what you wish for. That doesn’t mean I regret it. I’ll only regret it if the truth doesn’t come out.”
Erik sighed and shook his head. “Look, Garth, why don’t you come with me? I think we need to get you checked in somewhere. Bad things happened to your friends, and you can’t tell fantasy from reality, not that you were great about it before.”
“The observatory!” Garth bellowed. “You think that’s a coincidence too?”
“The observatory?” Erik walked around the front of his flitter and stood in front of the huge Garth. The man’s unruly hair was even more of a red mane than normal.
“Yes,” Garth hissed. “The observatory.”
“You’re talking about Llewelyn Observatory?” Erik’s stomach tightened.
It couldn’t be.
Garth’s eyes widened and he nodded furiously, his hair fluttering with the movement. “Yes! I knew you would catch on to the fact that it was suspicious. Don’t tell me the Obsidian Detective buys that a random observatory just blows up for no reason.”
Erik took a deep breath. He hated the words that needed to come out of his mouth, but he couldn’t ignore the possibility that the crazed man had stumbled onto something close to the truth.
“Are you telling me someone was responsible for blowing up that observatory?” Erik asked. “That it wasn’t an accident? And you have proof?”
“Yes, my group received a message indirectly from someone we believe might have been working on or with the observatory,” Garth explained. “He gave us some leads, but we weren’t able to continue contacting him. Using those leads, we looked into different things, and we came up with something concrete.”
“What?” Erik asked.
“Th
e coordinates to the truth that will rock the UTC to its core.” Garth slumped against his flitter, his head hung low. “But then everyone started dying.” He looked up at Erik. “I know I might not make it, but I can’t let the truth die with me. Please.” Garth’s voice was a whisper. “I need your help.”
Julia’s eyes widened as she reread the last line of the message to ensure she wasn’t seeing things.
THERE IS CONFIRMATION OF A SECOND UNINVITED GUEST. ETA WITH MARGIN OF ERROR OVERLAPS THE PRIMARY PARTY-GOERS.
Julia threw her head back and screamed in frustration, the sound echoing under the vast vaulted ceiling of the room.
“That bitch,” she seethed. “It had to be her, but how did she know? And if she knew, why didn’t she ever bring it up? Did she know last year? But that’s the only way.”
Years of planning and preparation might end in ignominy and failure.
Julia slumped forward, her breathing ragged and uneven. No. Her team was prepared. She only needed to send them a message.
“I won’t lose, Sophia. Not to you or your memory. I. Won’t. Lose!”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Erik couldn’t believe he was listening, on purpose, to a man who was convinced the Navigators were hidden on Earth as platypuses.
Strange and dark things had happened since Erik’s return to Earth, but there was a line that separated reality from what could only charitably be called batshit-craziness.
Garth’s evidence remained unconvincing.
Alleged assassinations could be explained without reaching for a dark conspiracy, and a conspiracy theorist would constantly try to pattern-match strange circumstances to his worldview, especially when trying to deal with the cruel realities of the sudden deaths of friends.
There was one problem; the desperate plea in Garth’s eyes argued for sincerity. But that didn’t mean anything. A deluded crank could easily believe contradictory things. Erik already knew Garth wasn’t a master of consistent and honest exploration of the truth.
One Dark Future Page 23