Her mother whispered, “Of course.”
Tension breaking, they ate while passing on plates and salt politely.
“Dad, did they give you a hard time about me staying here yesterday?”
“Let them try!” he blurted out, his cheeks flushed.
“It’s OK, I just needed to be at home for just a bit. I’ll go back to Artemis, they’ll assign me a bunk bed I think,” Aura said.
“Oh?” her mother asked with interest. “How are the facilities, the recruits? Is it clean?”
They all suddenly decided to pretend that it hadn’t all gone to shit, and talk as if it was a college or something. One they had planned on her going to.
“Hm, it’s nice. There’s tons of girls, lots of physical training which I like…” Aura said shaking her head.
“How nice. What sort of training?” her mother asked and bit on her steak.
“Group ops, urban strategy, firearm handling, tactical high-speed driving, that sort of thing,” Aura said as if she was referring to English lessons.
Her mother nodded, “I see. Well, as long as you like it there. Your enthusiasm is radiant.” She picked out the olives from her salad, she never liked them.
Tony was sitting there open-mouthed, staring at their casual exchanges.
“I thought I had to do just one year up to my eighteenth, but it’s two years training minimum. I’ll have some catching up to do and that will be awkward with the rest, but I think I can handle it.”
Tony sighed and went to look for more wine.
“Call Maria for that,” her mother said.
“I can pour my own wine, thank you!” Tony protested and got to the kitchen. Cupboards slammed and shut loudly.
“What about dad’s appearances while you’re in Italy?” Aura asked.
“They will manage without me. After all, it’s your father they are coming to see, not me.”
Aura heard the doorbell and the heavy thumps of Maria’s feet going to the door.
Tony sat back down on the dinner table and poured himself more wine. He spilt it on the tablecloth and gulped it through his teeth. Then the look on his face said that he realised he had ruined the tablecloth and that five seconds had passed without a scolding. He eyed mom and said, “I’ll see if I can squeeze in a day or two to come as well. We should all be together as a family.”
Mother smiled at that, and Aura felt nice. Some things didn’t change.
Maria came in the dining room and said, “Miss Aura, there are two lady Amazons at the door for you!”
At least she came clothed this time. The black haired Amazon, who was scary as hell even in her normal state was standing in the Nightingales’ hall. Next to her was big woman, almost round and always hesitant. They had left anything weapony to the security at the gate, and they were wearing comfortable tactical clothes and vests.
“Bremusa and Melousa I assume. Nice to meet you in person,” Aura said and presented the sofa like a proper host.
Melousa plopped down happily while Bremusa, alert, walked around the room slowly, as if looking for something hidden.
She didn’t sit down.
“Can I get you anything? We have some excellent pastries.”
Melousa perked up at that.
“No thank you, we don’t need anything,” Bremusa said. “We need to talk about something serious, can we do that here?”
“Sure,” Aura said and sat on a chair, putting her feet up the way her mom always scolded her about. If you’re gonna rebel, go all the way.
“You were about to come in today at Artemis…” Bremusa began.
“Yes.” Aura said, her tone frozen. “That was before Orosa was killed.” Then she remembered that Bremusa had also lost a team-member only days ago and regretted saying that.
“I understand,” Bremusa said. “There is the issue of who will vouch for you. Orosa had done that for you, but now that she is gone you need another senior Amazon to vouch for your recruitment.” She was clenching her tattooed left arm, without realising it Aura thought.
“Wait, I’m still not in yet? I thought it was only paperwork and stuff!” Aura exclaimed.
“It is. And I need your help with something. For a mission. If you accept, I’ll vouch for you and you’ll join us as planned. Otherwise, well, you might try begging Dionysos for your job back.”
“Um,” Melousa said with her sweet voice. “I can vouch for her. I’m a senior too.”
Bremusa’s eyes widened at she glared at her. “No you can’t! You won’t!”
Aura laughed at that, falling back in her seat.
Bremusa eyed her with a deadly stare.
“You should have figured out the whole intimidation thing beforehand. Really. Not that you aren’t scary as hell. Trust me, you are. But being undermined by your team-member? Priceless. Ladies, I’m already all in. Aren’t you supposed to be my superiors now? Just tell me what you need.”
“We need your celebrity status to get into a Dionysian party,” Bremusa said.
“Hm. That. Might as well use it as long as I still have it,” Aura said rubbing her chin. She noticed something on Melousa’s expression as she did that, a heavy kind of melancholy.
Tony’s voice came in from the next room, “No alcohol at that party, you hear? You’re still my little girl you know.”
Bremusa’s eyes widened, and she cupped her palms together. “Was that Tony Nightingale? He’s here? Can I meet him?” Her killer attitude vanished, and she was a fangirl now.
Aura snorted and led them to the next room, saying, “Yeah. Dad! Let me introduce you to my friends! They’re fans.”
“What about those pastries you mentioned sweetie?” Melousa asked, hesitating all the way.
Playlist: Video 56/67
“Wow!” Aura said and ran around the bike, looking at it from different angles and taking pictures.
“You like it?” Melousa asked.
“Do I like it? Are you kidding me? Wow! And this is mine?”
Bremusa crossed her arms. “It was Antioche’s, so you can have it, yes. Melusa put in those gyro-”
“Gyroscopic stabilisers,” added Melousa sounding like a sweet teacher correcting a child.
“-those in, so it will be much easier to ride than Orosa’s. I suggest you leave that here at the garage for now.”
They were at Artemis HQ. Aura had managed to drive the yellow bike up to this place, but was glad she was getting one that had training wheels on. Orosa’s bike was a beast but required some real experience to handle. She did want to keep it, but she begrudgingly agreed it was too much horsepower for her. Aura looked around the garage and noted that there were plenty of stored bikes that were left untouched by the rest of the Amazons.
“Tell her the plan Melousa, you’re better at this,” said Bremusa and sat up on a toolbox, rattling the tools inside and making an echoing racket.
Aura was fondling her new bike but her attention was on the sweet-spoken Amazon.
“Well now. Tell me Aura, does it feel like your life was predetermined up to now? Like it was fated somehow?”
Aura frowned. “Yeah…”
“Our last mission, the one that gone bad, was about changing the legal status of orphans on a computer.”
“Or so we thought,” Bremusa added.
“Exactly dear. There was something strange about that computer, and in short, I hacked it.”
“You what?” Bremusa exclaimed and turned to her, rattling the toolbox.
Aura put her hand on her mouth, hiding a laugh. “You need to work on your inter-team communication.”
“How else was I to know what was hidden? Plus it’s not like they even tried, it only took me a day. Anyway dear, here’s what happens. There’s this company Moiragetis, a subsidiary of Zeus Electric. That company gathers huge amounts of personal data and uses data-mining to predict patterns and people’s actions.”
“Okay. How’s that unlike any other neural network?” Aura asked.
“Oh!
You get it. Finally, a person I can talk to. The difference is that they simulate projected paths for people based on that data and then present them to three women who are plugged in all the time. Those poor, poor girls.” Melousa said shaking her head.
“Wait. You’re telling me they made the Fates? That doesn’t work like that!”
“The Olympian CEOs believe it does. Here is your projected path,” Melousa said and presented her laptop.
Aura leaned close and saw a swirling ribbon of blue light nodes, photographs and video stills of her popping up and vanishing. “My fate?”
“Keep watching dear.”
Aura watched, as dates moved forward in time. She saw projected public appearances, generated headlines. Drug addiction, rehab clinics. Her father taking her our of the clinics, paparazzi pestering them. As the dates flew by, she saw a version of herself she didn’t recognise. Sunken eyes, thin and weak, extreme half-shaven hair, piercings on her brow. Then she saw a young man, hazy but somehow familiar. Was he someone she knew? She saw herself pinching his cheeks. It was her brother! A famous opera singer, kept away from the famous music halls of the world to tend to his worthless big sister.
Aura pushed the laptop shut and stepped away from Melousa. “Fuck that! I’m not destined to be the black sheep of the family. I’m not a failure! I’m not.”
She got on her new bike and stormed off the building.
Playlist: Video 57/67
The ride was smooth. She was enjoying the wind and the sun. The bike was indeed modified to stay upright; it was as if someone else was driving along with you, steadying your wheel if you were about to get your face smashed.
As if Orosa was there, a ghostly rider. Protecting her.
She drove up to Penteli hill and sat where they had properly met the first time.
She could see the smog that was chocking the city, though it was a good day.
The skyscrapers stood tall, dominating the skyline. Aura was seeing them now with brand new eyes. She could see what they were for.
Zeus and the other companies had bought everything. That much was known by all. But what people didn’t know, was that they were manipulating people’s lives. People’s fates.
Was it true? Could it be true?
Zeus thought so. So much in fact that people had died for that secret.
Some withered girl in a computer lab had seen Aura’s data and had decided, on a whim, that she would be best suited as the black sheep of the family. The poor tormented Tony, raising a rebellious daughter, always causing trouble, never conforming despite his best affections. Making him out to look as the perfect father.
She could understand all those inexplicable decisions regarding her family Dionysos had up to now. They made sense now.
She took out the folded rag, the one Orosa had used to wipe away her tears. The grease smell was seeping from it into her clothes, but she liked it. She closed her eyes and was reminded of Orosa.
She took out the action camera and loaded the video wirelessly into her phone. She winced and stopped herself many times, but she forced herself to edit it and upload it with Orosa’s account. It was the ill-fated mission from two days ago that got her killed. Where Aura got her killed because of her big mouth. She would have wanted Aura to carry on her work.
“Just like the day we met,” Aura said out loud. “Me giving you a video that you lost.”
She sniffed loudly and stood up.
She couldn’t hurt Zeus. Not yet.
She thought of the cursed woman that decided on her fate and swore she would make her pay.
She buried the dirty rag underneath the spot they had sat the first time, and said, “The road demands tribute.”
Playlist: Video 58/67
“Let’s go,” Aura said and shook her team awake.
“Great. Shouldn’t we dress up or something?” Bremusa asked.
Aura looked at the laying woman’s combat fatigues and urban boots. She didn’t look scary now, not like when she burst into Artemis’ lobby covered in blood, but Aura would never let that image off her mind. She knew what Bremusa was, a steel, sharp edge. A sword, that should be aimed at your enemies.
“Nope. We’ll crash the party as we are. Amazon style,” Aura said and shrugged.
“You are getting the hang of this way too quickly, newbie,” Bremusa said and got up to shower.
“These might help you inside sweetie,” Melousa said and presented a pair of clear glasses. They looked like something one would wear at a shooting range, sleek and sporty.
“What are they,” Aura said, trying them on.
Her view lit up, and she jerked her head around. Information popped up wherever she focused, lines and data appearing related to the physical world. She glanced at Melousa, her social profile appeared, whatever little data a hacker would allow regarding herself online. She turned her head at Bremusa’s propped up shotgun, and she saw specs for the weapon. Links to buy ammunition, reviews by gun-enthusiasts.
It was a bit much, but she could learn to handle it.
“Shared Augmented Reality,” Melousa explained with her teacher’s voice. “It hasn’t rolled out yet for the public, but Artemis knows I love to play with the newest toys,” she said and giggled.
Aura frowned. She was pretty sure Amazons weren’t supposed to giggle like that. She decided to drop the subject for now. These were, after all, senior Amazons and she was just a chicklet, as Deinomache had called her. “Okay, it’s very cool. What do I do with it?” She waved her hand in her field of vision.
“The veil, allows you to see the superimposed digital world over the real-life equivalent.” Melousa whispered, “Oh sweetie, you have no idea how glad I am that I can use big words around you.” She continued normally, “I saw the fates manipulating data the time Antioche and Bremusa got in there, so I think it will come in handy. Plus they’re bulletproof, so why not?”
“Neat. Do I get a gun?” Aura asked.
“Do you have weapons training dear?”
“No…”
“Then I’m afraid you don’t. You are less likely to shoot one of us that way.”
Aura guessed that was true enough. “Don’t you carry a gun?”
“Oh no! I don’t like them. I have different skills. Did you like the bike?”
“Yes! It’s great, very stable,” Aura said and looked over Melousa’s shoulder at her gear, neatly placed on the bench as she was going through her checklist.
Checklists. Hrmph. Aura thought Amazons were cool, smashing stuff. Not going over checklists. Orosa hadn’t ever shown that in a video. You know why she hadn’t, Aura asked herself? Because it’s boring. Lame.
She read one of the lists.
SAR glasses ✓
Flexible conduit. (Belt?)
Adult dosage injectable tranquilisers.
Hacking chest.
Fuel all bikes.
“Where’s the party taking place?” Aura asked, sitting on her new bike.
“Moiragetis was moved to a new secure facility. They are hosting an opening party at the main building. The server room and the Fates were moved to an underground floor next to the main building. My plan is for us to get in through the party entrance and break through to the secure underground floor.”
“Now you’re talking! How do we do that?” Aura said, eyeing the chubby Amazon with renewed respect.
“With C4, naturally!” She giggled.
Damn, she ruined it.
Why did she have to giggle?
“Won’t people hear a few loud explosions taking place right under their feet?”
“I ran a botnet to make a specific song popular for this week. It is a very loud electronic song with deep bass at 48 Hz. It vibrates at the frequency these explosives pop in contained three meter-wide corridors, so it should cover the sound well enough.”
Aura was shocked. In a good way. “You can manipulate song charts?”
“Only small scale, and it will correct itself in less than a day. But this
DJ will surely pick songs from that list, he has done so at 98% of his previous jobs,” Melousa said and went through her damn checklist while munching on a candy bar.
“Sounds like a plan then,” Aura exhaled and suddenly she felt very nervous about this.
They really were doing this.
How awesome was that?
Playlist: Video 59/67
For the first time in her life, Aura crashed a party with an entourage. The noisy song “Wreck The City” was blasting from the speaker installation and Aura flung the double doors open. The security at the door eyed them wearily. They were all wearing urban combat fatigues, riding boots, vests and belt pouches. They weren’t armed, but the man seemed like he was fully expecting them to be. He clicked something on his belt and a full body scan initiated and bleeped. He let Aura pass.
“They’re with me,” Aura said and pointed at the scary-looking Bremusa on her one side and the focused Melousa on the other.
They walked in the building and down a hall. “I always wanted to say that,” Aura said to her new teammates. The music throbbed louder as they entered the main event.
“This is the kind of place you hang out?” asked Bremusa, looking around her with alertness.
“Not as much as you think, no,” Aura replied. Then she spotted something that infuriated her. Viko and Desha, as a couple. For this week at least. She went close to them, her entourage following.
“Aura!” Desha said, looking at her from her boots up to her unkempt hair. “Oh my, what a fashion statement. Very… Urban!”
Aura waited for the giggle.
It came.
“Bremusa, please stare at her,” Aura said pointing casually.
Bremusa did so, and Desha took a step back, spilling some of her drink.
Viko had switched his see-through black and illuminated shirt for a red see-through illuminated one. It fit his date’s dress. He was holding a canapé, something from a fish. “Aura, I’m so sorry for the misunderstanding,” he said flashing his perfect smile. “They took my words out of context, you know how reporters are. I’m sure you aren’t mad at me?” he asked with the tone of voice of someone who couldn’t possibly make anyone angry.
MOAB � Mother Of All Boxsets Page 57