Flash

by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

  What are we supposed to do? Just walk by him or her?

  Something like that. Again, there was the hint of a smile in her link, although her face betrayed no emotion.

  We reached the maintenance panel without seeing anyone, although I could sense all sorts of scanning energies around us, not that I knew what they were, just that they were there. Once at the panel, I followed directions, handing her tools.

  "... now, the second probe..."

  "... insulation replacement tube, medium sized..."

  I was glad that someone had labeled everything, because, except for the more common tools, such as screwdrivers, hammers, voltage/current meters, and field monitors, I wouldn't have known what anything was.

  Abruptly, Paula smiled and straightened. "We're finished here. We'll do the next job now." Close the panel doors, and follow me to the right. Bring the kits. She lifted the case and turned.

  As instructed, I closed the doors and followed her.

  There is a stud on the underside of the handles to the kits. Press it once.

  I fumbled for a moment before finding each stud. After pressing each, I looked down. I could barely make out the cases I carried, blending as they did into the gray floor.

  Paula stopped, and the side of the corridor slid back, revealing an oblong opening, one that I hadn't even seen until it appeared. The side corridor looked the same as the one we had left, with the same cream and green walls and gray permacrete floor that sloped upward gently.

  Paula slipped on her hood and gloves. I had to fumble open both kits before getting mine out and donning it and the blend-in gloves. Then we switched from white to blend-in. Even from a meter away, I could barely make out Paula's outline.

  Quiet now. There's a guard post ten meters ahead, at the end of the ramp. Stay next to the wall. We're inside the scanners, but he could still see us.

  Right. I understood that. Changing backgrounds resulted in swirls in the blend-ins, swirls that an alert guard or visual scanner might catch.

  We walked right by the guard post. The guard didn't really even look up from the console.

  That's the danger in relying on systems exclusively.

  I thought that a strange comment from a cydroid or clone who relied heavily, if not exclusively at times, on Central Four.

  To the right.

  I followed Paula down the wide corridor to the second door. There she took out a thin probe and inserted it into the cardlock. After a moment, the door opened.

  I had set down the kits and slipped out the slingshot, but kept it covered by my gloved hands as I watched the guard in the booth. He jerked around and slipped away from his post, neuralwhip out and ready. His eyes darted around and past us, almost as if he knew someone happened to be there. Then he saw the open door.

  I didn't wait. The nonlethal dart slammed into his chest. He looked down at it, then tried to grasp it with his free hand before pitching forward. The neuralwhip skidded across the gray permacrete floor after he hit it.

  That was better. There was no energy discharge. Thank you.

  You're welcome.

  Paula gestured to the open door. After replacing the slingshot, I picked up both kits and followed her through the doorway into a large room that looked to be half storeroom and half assembly area. She made her way to a stack of plastic-sheathed crates, studied them and then moved to a second pallet, and then a third, before stopping and waiting for me to join her.

  I stopped at the second pallet. The entire pallet was containers of ultra-ex, thirty one-kilo blocks in each container, each block swathed in inert shielding. What did they need ultra-ex for? I shook my head. The pallets were for transshipment to Mars. Ultra-ex wasn't just a military tool; it was also the most effective blasting tool, and there was still a lot of that to be done on Mars. Equally important, MultiCor didn't want an ultra-ex facility on Mars, not where the colonists and exiled servies could get their hands on it.

  Jonat?

  Just a moment. I smiled, then, shielding what I did from Paula, made three quick cuts so that I could retrieve a block or two on the way out. I had an idea. Whether it would work was another question, but there was no reason to pass up something that might prove helpful.

  I moved to the third pallet. There were two sizes of boxes.

  The oblong ones are the neuralwhips. The square ones hold the controllers.

  And?

  You have to put the controllers in the neurostunners.

  Me? Why not you? I don't know how.

  Because Central Four can have no part in that. Once she shows you how, I will turn my back and erase that discrete program.

  I didn't have to say I was confused. My face showed it.

  There's me; there's her; and there's us. I'll explain later. Just watch.

  I watched as she opened one of each kind of container. What Paula, or a remote program did, was simple enough. Slide two catches and remove one screw. Lift out the old controller, and replace it with the new one. Reinstall the screw, and slide the catches back into place.

  You have an hour, roughly, and you need to get through two cases. Three would be better. I'll watch for human guards.

  This will do what to stop ISS?

  Once we're clear, a safo strike force will drop in, and verify that ISS has violated the All-Earth Arms Protocols. Deng is responsible as director general.

  So? I wasn't about to assume that everything would be all right. Not after everything I'd been though.

  You'll have a covert security detail assigned to watch over you and the children. Deng will know that, and he's never tried to outface the Safety Office or civil authority.

  I didn't know as that was enough, but it was better than the current situation. What about the rest of the PST group?

  All MultiCor will be under investigation, and in a violation of this scope, Privacy Act provisions cannot be applied. That means all financial transfers will be under scrutiny.

  I could have debated endlessly, but there are times you have to act. I got to work. I'd barely started when I realized something else. Every single one of the neuralwhips was nonmetallic. They'd pass through any security screen, anywhere. That meant they cost almost four times as much to produce. It also meant ISS wanted them undetectable, and I didn't like that at all. Once I established a rhythm, I moved quickly, and in fifty-nine minutes I'd gone through three cases.

  When I turned, Paula was looking out the doorway.

  There are three cases with the heavy controllers.

  Her face blanked. Three cases of class-one neuralwhips?

  That's right. I didn't mention the nonmetallic fabrication.

  Noted. Her face returned to a more human look, a worried human look. There are ten guards headed down the corridor, and they're carrying slug-throwers. They've also got goggles.

  You didn't tell me?

  You were inspecting the cases.

  I decided not to get into more questions at the moment. How far?

  Forty meters, moving slowly.

  Do you have safo credentials?

  Yes ... but they'll shoot first.

  I glanced around the storeroom, then grinned. Self-defense is allowed, isn't it?

  Yes.

  I suggest we use several of their long-range neuralwhips ... after warning them that they are interfering with a lawful inspection of unlawful activities.

  That won't stop them.

  The whips will. Then you use the comm system in the guard's booth to link to Central Four. There has to be a way to get out. If not, we'll have to fight our way to the end of the tunnel.

  Paula nodded. I pulled out four of the whips and moved to join her at the door, but not before I also retrieved two flat blocks of the shielded ultra-ex and slipped one into each thigh pocket of the blend-ins.

  I stopped short of the doorway.

  "We know you're in there. Come on out without weapons."

  I looked at Paula.

  "This is Safety Officer Athene. We have been conducting an au
thorized covert inspection of your facility. I suggest you either lay down your weapons and let us depart peacefully, or move back around the corner and let us leave. Open a channel to Denv Safety Office, and I'll confirm that."

  The only answer was a short volley of shots. One of the shells ricocheted over my head.

  I dropped to the floor and darted a look around the door frame. All ten were in shielded armor. My darts would have been useless, but the whips wouldn't be, provided that they got within another ten meters.

  Let's step back and wait until they get closer.

  Paula eased back, and we waited.

  "Last chance to come out with your hands empty." The voice boomed down the corridor.

  "Last chance for you to let us go without getting charged with obstruction of justice and armed resistance against authority," Paula snapped back.

  There was another volley of heavy slugs. That strongly suggested to me that the guards had no intention of letting us go anywhere alive. I checked the whips and the distance. They were still about ten meters back, leapfrogging forward, but quickly, confident that their armor would protect them. I couldn't help a tight smile, realizing why CorPak wanted the heavy whips. The PAMD agitators were probably using their own surface armor to shield themselves against the standard CorPak stunners and whips.

  Ready?

  Yes.

  I started with two quick slash-blasts from floor level, catching the point guards.

  Slugs flew everywhere, and some came close, but the guards hadn't expected that kind of weaponry, and most of them went down. Two were still firing, and I'd exhausted the charge in the one whip.

  Paula lurched forward, throwing a slash with her whip across the face of the nearer guard. Then she spun away. By then I'd used the other whip on the remaining guard, and all of them were down.

  So was Paula. Her face was white.

  My arm. Pressure dressing in the kit.

  I got the dressing out and on, almost as quickly as if it had been years earlier, then dragged her to her feet. Can we leave the kits?

  Yes.

  She was walking, but the pain had to have been terrible, the way she put one foot in front of the other.

  It seemed liked a quarter of an hour before we reached the guard shack, but it was more like a quarter of a minute. I couldn't believe it. The console was live.

  Paula got in a single burst transmission, somehow, subverting the system, before the lights and everything else went out. Someone hadn't figured out how to isolate the console and just depowered everything.

  Too late for that, Paula said. Strike force is coming in.

  I couldn't help grinning for a moment in the darkness. Without any power in the tunnels, the advantage was ours. Let's get out of here. I stuffed a neuralwhip into my belt. We might need it on the way out.

  You lead. Her "voice" sounded weak, and I put an arm around her as we headed down the ramp. I could just barely make out things, but without my enhancements, I would have been totally blind. As it was I almost ran into the half-open door to the main tunnel.

  The outer door was closed, naturally, because there was no power.

  Is there a manual lever?

  Here ... access door ... Paula fumbled, and a panel slid aside. Inside was a small wheel. Paula started to slump, and I caught her before she collapsed.

  After lowering her to the permacrete floor, I began to spin the wheel. It took over a hundred turns before the small personnel door was wide enough for me to squeeze out, half-carrying Paula.

  Overhead, there were flitters everywhere, or so it seemed.

  I got Paula to the van. It was locked.

  Central Four... Paula's hurt, and the van's locked.

  Locks are off. You have authority to drive. Van is being reset to Safety Office markings, and transponder is on. Follow the console map to emergency medical.

  I laid Paula in the back as quickly and gently as I could, and then scrambled into the driver's seat. I had the van at speed by the time we were on the main road. The front gate of ISS was being held by four safos in combat armor. I'd never seen safos wearing it before. They waved me through without stopping. I didn't see the ISS security types at all and didn't care if I ever did.

  As I raced southward, following the map toward the northwest division substation, my mind began to turn over what had happened. The ISS guards had been shooting to kill. That told me that they didn't want anyone in their facility, including the Safety Office. They'd advanced within range of the neuralwhips, though, and that meant that they didn't know what was in the storeroom. I had to wonder what else was in the place and what else SPD was involved in.

  I pushed that thought away and concentrated on driving. Before all that long, I was within a block of the substation.

  Go past the station and turn right. Two thirds of the way back is an open vehicle bay. Drive right inside. You'll be met.

  Two cydroids were already opening the rear of the van even before I was out of the driver's seat. I left the whip in the van. The vehicle door to the street was closed. I followed the gurney into the same kind of room I'd been in. It wasn't the same facility, but it could have been.

  Within moments, Paula was in a medcrib, and I was standing there, looking down. Her face, what I could see of it, was pale, and her eyes were closed. I wanted to reach down and hug her, or stroke her forehead. I didn't. I wasn't sure I knew who she was, or what parts of her were her and what parts belonged to Central Four. There were clearly two sides to her personality ... if not more.

  She will recover completely. She is far less severely injured than you were.

  How badly?

  There is shrapnel in her chest in several places, and her arm will need some rebuilding.

  I'd never seen the wounds in her chest.

  You also could use some superficial treatment for your scalp wounds.

  Scalp wounds. I could feel dampness running down my neck, but I'd thought that had been sweat. I put my hand on the back of my neck. It came away bloody.

  There is a portable unit in the corner.

  I walked over and let one of the cydroids position the healer, and the nanite film disinfected, cleaned, and sealed the gouges in my scalp.

  I need to get back to the children.

  Take the van. Amos will accompany you and drive it back. A security detail is already in position around the VanOkar house.

  I walked back to the medcrib and took another look at Paula. She was still pale, but not quite so pallid, I thought. Maybe that was just hope.

  Then, I walked back to the van. One of the silent cydroids followed me.

  Chapter 62

  Safety Officer Yenci stepped into the apparently empty briefing room. She looked around. "Central Four?"

  "Yes, Officer Yenci?" The projected figure of a brown-haired and broad-shouldered male safo appeared before Yenci.

  "Don't do that. You know I don't like that."

  Central Four waited.

  "Has Lieutenant Meara offered any more information about leaks from the Safety Office?"

  "There have been no public releases."

  "Has the lieutenant said anything?"

  "There is nothing in the logs or on the record."

  "A while back, the lieutenant had mentioned ISS. Is there anything on the record about that?"

  "There is a strike force taking action at this moment, Officer Yenci."

  "What kind of action?"

  "That information is restricted."

  Yenci turned, without speaking, to find Lieutenant Meara standing to one side.

  "Were you going somewhere, Yenci?"

  "Oh ... I didn't know you were here, Lieutenant." Yenci offered the slightest of nods to her superior officer.

  "I'm not surprised." The lieutenant's voice was flat. Even a bio-human would have noted the difference in pitch.

  "Sir?"

  "Consider yourself relieved of duties, officer," Lieutenant Meara said.

  "Consider myself?" Yenci's voice
was almost lazy.

  "Officer Alys Yenci, under the provisions of PSO 1410(A), you are hereby relieved of all duties and committed to immediate detention. You have the right to contest this, either through the Administrative Procedures Act, or in open court, but, under the Public Safety Amendments, all communications prior to a hearing or a court appearance are subject to review, and that includes communications with the advocate of your choice."

  Yenci paled. "Might I ask the reason for such an action?"

  "Revealing safo operations to private sources, accepting payment for such information. Those will do for starters." Meara smiled coldly.

  Yenci stiffened.

  "And your private link to ISS has been blocked." Meara's smile broadened. "You really don't think we'd let you get away with that, do you? The others have already been arrested and detained."

  "I'll fight this in open court," Yenci replied.

  "As you think best."

  The door behind Yenci opened, and two cydroids in safo grays stepped through.

  Yenci turned, but she was only halfway around when the stunner hit her. She stiffened and fell backward.

  "Take her to secure detention," Meara ordered.

  "Yes, sir."

  Only after the cydroids had carried Yenci away did the lieutenant speak. "Did she get off any transmissions?"

  "No," replied Central Four, using the baritone voice that belonged to the Charles cydroid. "She attempted to link with SPD covert operations. That is logged and documented."

  "Good. What about the strike force?"

  "They have the tunnel and SPD's hidden storehouse, as well as a hidden cydroid facility."

  "A cydroid facility?"

  "There is a high probability that the facility produced at least some of the cydroids used against secure communications lines in the Denv guideways."

  "They were framing PAMD. I wouldn't have put it past them."

  "The strike force has also documented and verified the installation of the mark-two controllers on the neuralwhips. There were three cases so modified. Two cases are cause for a class-one action against ISS. There are also the possible charges of bribery of a safety officer and subversion."

  "Deng will fight, and the Legislature will scream, but this time, it won't do much good. He'll get off, but maybe we can keep him off balance. Once the operation is complete, draft a release for my approval. We'll make sure that Senator Carlisimo and Representative Eskin are the first to know. Oh ... after it's sent, make sure that the Sinese, EuroCom, and the Seasian Alliance all get copies as well. A little outside pressure on the Legislature, MultiCor, and ISS, won't hurt."