Subversive Elements (Unreal Universe Book 2)

by Lee Bond

  Naoko read the page over quickly, then looked into Garth’s eyes. Chairwoman Doans’ wording was quite clear. She’d given Garth Nickels something no one else had ever been given. “This is … this is … most unusual. I … I am uncertain if this is even legal. I would like to investigate this further, if I may.”

  “Why?” A workman came by with a Sheet containing a list of the various changes that they’d made to the Ultra Suite, and Garth started putting his thumbprint wherever he was asked. “I mean, it’s super that you want to do that, but it sounds like an awful lot of work … I’d like it more if you just relaxed for our date tomorrow.”

  The workman stole a peek at Naoko and whistled under his breath. Garth grinned like a buffoon and nodded happily. The two men exchanged winks and the worker left with his Sheet.

  “I …” Naoko hated telling men she was a Gamehead. They invariably got the wrong idea and started treating her like ‘one of the boys’ when she was quite emphatically female. “I am a Gamehead.”

  “You told me that already, remember?” Garth read Naoko’s embarrassment and gathered that being a woman and addicted to the Game was one of those frowned upon things in ‘polite’ society. Hell, he didn’t care. She made his brain go fuzzy. “Anyhow, I thought this was a dictatorship. Can’t the Chairwoman do whatever she wants?”

  “Yes, Chairwoman Doans has free reign to do whatever she wants. I misspoke when I said ‘illegal’. I meant to say impractical.” Naoko explained further. “The Game, as you will learn, is one of the few things that brings us all together. We are as divided a people as you can imagine on so many other issues. Many rely on the connection of The Game every five years because it does connect us. If the Chairwoman has done something … underhanded … to get the Promoters to agree to let you fight in the Final Game, then people will get upset. Since the only person who can replace her is the new OverSecretary –a man who isn’t ready for such responsibilities- everyone will blame you. After that, things will go badly.”

  “Oh. Sounds tricky.” Garth was glad Naoko was in his corner; she made an excellent –and incredibly beautiful- addition to Team Nickels. He didn’t want to tell her that there was at least a fifty percent chance that she was wasting her time on the subject. Universe willing, he’d get his ship well before that monumental ass kicking began, neatly avoiding any head-pulling-off that might occur. “What do I do if it is unethical or whatever?”

  “That,” Naoko answered seriously, “is one of the things I’m going to look into. I assume you really do intend to fight in the Game, against God soldiers?”

  “Yes.” He was impressed; his voice didn’t quiver in the slightest.

  “Then I will do my best to find out if the Chairwoman has tried to put you into a bad situation, and if she has, what you can do about it.” A thought struck Naoko. “Of course, she may not have done anything of the sort, in which case, I will have wasted my time.”

  “I can’t have that …”

  “It doesn’t matter, Garth. I am already on my way to visit with one of my friends who knows more about the Game than I do, if such a thing is possible.” Naoko laughed. She supposed she could try to get the information out of Old Man Sa over the comm, but wasn’t; Sa Quince was, as he insisted on being called, an old man, and so few people went to visit him. She knew Old Man Sa loved being visited by beautiful young women, and as such would be more forthcoming with information in person. “What are you going to do?”

  “Oh…” Garth grinned mischievously. “Gonna meet with my accountant in a little while, buy some stuff. Then I thought I’d hit the town, see what’s shaking. I’ve got a whole day to waste until I get to hang out with you.”

  “Well,” Naoko smiled impishly, “I suggest you keep your eyes out for reporters, sa. They will get you into trouble.”

  Garth feigned a shot to the heart at Naoko’s deadly blow, then waved goodbye. He placed a call to Herrig.

  Sa Nickels Starts Spending His Money

  “Garth, good to see you up and around.” Herrig motioned absentmindedly to a chair. A corner of his mind was –and most likely always would be- astounded that his client/employer was alive. Garth Nickels’ tenacity was already a thing of legend.

  The two men sat, with Garth craning his head around the room to take everything in. Herrig was quite proud of the work he’d done since being reminded he wasn’t a one-man army capable of doing thousands of hours of paperwork without losing his mind; UltraMegaDynamaTron’s staff had swollen over night from one to fifteen.

  Many of the men and women working in the outer offices were devoting their time solely to dredging through new sets of documents that’d arrived that morning from Central Offices. Armed with Garth’s nebulous intentions and a strict mandate from Herrig to keep their eyes peeled for the sort of tricks that were played on unsuspecting trillionaires, they were bent earnestly to their tasks.

  Garth jerked a thumb towards the outer offices. “That’s what I like to see, buddy. Them working and you sitting in here making a big pile of cash. You should, like, get a television set or something in here. Take advantage.”

  Herrig flushed at the sideways compliment. “I gathered from your call that you’ve met with Alix van derTuppen?”

  Garth sighed resolutely. “Let’s just say I’m glad she’s working for me instead of against me. She’s a nightmare, Herrig. She doesn’t act like any publicist I ever met.”

  “How many have you met?” Herrig wondered aloud. “I assure you, I went through the listings more than once in search of someone less abrasive than Si Alix. Eventually, after talking to several, I concluded that she is the best one for the job. Especially with your insistence that you come out of this being ‘not famous’.”

  “What’re you saying?” Garth bit back a grin. He knew damned well what Herrig was saying. He just wanted to see if the man would have the stones to say it out loud.

  “I am saying, sa, that you have the most forceful personality I’ve ever witnessed.” Herrig chuckled at Garth’s mock indignity. “Deny it all you wish, but it’s the truth. The other people I spoke with would crumble before the mighty Nickels resolve. This reminds me,” he tapped his prote, “Alix sent me an advance copy of your News4You story on the chance you’d like to see it.”

  “Not on your ever-loving life.” Garth planned on avoiding, hearing or seeing anything about himself anywhere outside of a mirror and his own massive ego.

  Ragged memories from his own time suggested a distressing trend in even the sincerest, most anti-popularity minded celebrities; they inevitably wound up believing their own press, getting themselves into increasingly worse situations as time progressed. Since he’d already started off that way, it’d be nice to see if he could actually manage to stay out of trouble for a change. If he could manage the impossible, he’d like to see about leaving Hospitalis in a better frame than when he’d arrived. “Now …”

  Herrig interrupted with a raised finger. “Before we begin, sa, there are some expenses I need to go over. You seem to be spending an inordinate amount of money at The Palazzo since leaving the hospital. I have here an itemized list of the more outrageous charges. The top two,” Herrig angled his proteus for Garth, “the top two are shocking. Why you would feel the need to … to modify a suite you don’t even own… And the first entry… ‘General Goods and Services’, well, it’s indecently large, even for you.”

  Garth shut his eyes. “I know, I know, it’s probably in the six figure range, but …”

  “I hate that I need to ask these questions, Garth, but as your Chief Financial Officer, I need to know: what, precisely, are ‘General Goods and Services’?” Herrig remembered the minor heart attack he’d experienced at seeing that line on The Palazzo’s expense report. More than a million dollars for a service, one with no description? At first, Herrig had considered the possibility that Garth had lost a credit chip and that someone was running around the Hotel charging up all manner of expenses before remembering that his employer was currently
without a prote or a card.

  “Trust me. It was worth it.” Garth nodded assiduously. Getting all that old Portsider stuff away from Jimmy’s rented storage locker had been dreadfully important. He was immensely lucky that basically every law enforcement official on the planet was tied up in dealing with the Spaceport Disaster, else someone would’ve been able to track everything back to him.

  Now that he thought about it, he hoped they’d remain that way for a while longer; the cabbie’s files, both those at the cab company and his own bank records, would need doctoring. Thinking about how badly he’d done for Jimmy made Garth angry and sick to his stomach, so he closed his eyes for a brief moment.

  Herrig, fussing unhappily with the answer, missed Garth’s sudden, fleeting mood change. He already knew Garth well enough to recognize when there was no possibility of further explanation.

  “Very well.” He sighed, rubbing a hand across his forehead. “Then perhaps you can explain why you purchased … let me see here … thirty plus Sheets?”

  “Oh!” Garth beamed. Nanotech that wouldn’t eat your face off. What a discovery! “We can totally write that off as research and development, Herrig.”

  “We don’t have an R&D team yet, sa.”

  “And that’s why I came here today!” Garth was proud of himself. He’d neatly brought the conversation around to what he wanted without having to answer any uncomfortable questions. That was happening so rarely these days he wanted to cheer. “I need to buy stuff.”

  Herrig cleared his throat. As an ex-banker and current financial advisor for the cumbersomely named ‘UltraMegaDynamaTron’, he was predisposed to loathe spending any more money than was absolutely necessary; this feeling was, in part, why he’d gone so long without hiring anyone to reduce his personal work-load. Garth wasn’t a man who bought ordinary items like cars or ridiculously expensive trinkets. No. He was a man who’d shown his willingness to spend billions of dollars on a medical research facility for no other reason to get the upper hand on an irritant. “Just … just what is it that you were thinking of buying? It isn’t The Palazzo, is it?”

  That honestly hadn’t occurred to Garth, though it should’ve. He toyed with the notion of being a hotelier for a few seconds before shaking his head. He’d be expected to talk nicely to people who lorded their wealth and position over the little guy and the last time that’d happened, he’d, well… the planet would recover. Eventually. “Actually, I want to buy a Quantum Communications Rig.”

  Herrig didn’t say anything. Instead, he chose to go to his prote and begin a search for how much a QCR would cost, if there were even any on the market. His nose warned him that the price would be very high indeed, possibly even sufficient to discourage Garth from parting with the cash. Worryingly, there did, in fact, seem to be one available. Herrig wanted to be suspicious of Garth, but couldn’t find anything, well, ‘wrong’. “There does seem to be one available…”

  “Yesssss?” Garth asked casually, eyes twinkling merrily.

  “It’s just that, according to the information my prote has, it’s the only one that’s been available in the last … thirty years.” Obviously, Herrig couldn’t know of his employer’s relationship with Ashok and the ex-billionaire executive’s colossal, Icarus-like descent from the skies, but he was learning to be suspicious.

  Herrig tried not to look up and failed. There it was. The gleam. He didn’t want to know. He cleared his throat. “In light of the fact that Ashok Guillfoyle was using his rig to control the Portsiders without being caught, the current Regime has a fresh dislike of Quantum technology. As such, the price is, ah, exorbitant. Furthermore…”

  “How much?”

  “Sa, it’s…”

  “How much?”

  “Close to a billion credits.”

  “Is that a lot?” Garth, who’d had very little concept of money before becoming richer than God, had even less understanding of monetary value now. If it were up to him, he’d go out, buy a few pairs of black pajamas and some lock picks and steal the fucking thing. He really, really wanted to steal something.

  “That…” Herrig blinked. He’d misread the documents. Amazed, he stammered, “That is the rental price, sa. Per month. There is no more purchasing a Quantum rig. Doans won’t allow it.”

  That put a different spin on things for damned sure. “Do they want my left ball as well?” A billion dollars a month was a price even the financially challenged Garth understood. That wasn’t price gouging; it was price-grenading. Or even price-nuclear-bombing. “Chairwoman Doans is a money-grubbing maniac.”

  “I understand, sa. It’s rather high.” Herrig nodded perfunctorily, the matter closed. His ears suggested he may have heard an inflammatory comment about the Chairwoman, but his brain denied any such activity.

  “Now hold your horses there, Hop-along Cassidy.” Garth waggled his hand in the air, rewinding the conversation. “I was just bitching. I really, really need that rig. Like, really a lot really. Put the paperwork through, tell me where it’s at so I can go pick it up.”

  Herrig motioned that he was busy reading, and tabbed through the next few pages of information pertaining to the Quantum rig, growing ever more despondent the closer he got to the end. He looked up at Garth once or twice, a nervous tick in his eye. When he got to the end of the document, Herrig realized he was sweating profusely. “The, ah, the … ah … Chairwoman Doans … she …”

  “Out with it, man! Egads!” Garth wished he had a prote on hand to snap Herrig’s picture; he could use a Sheet to catch his buddy’s look of total, exasperated shock, but it wasn’t as sneaky.

  Herrig took a deep breath and resumed, if shakily. He began paraphrasing directly from his prote. “Because Latelyspace is without artificial intelligence, the science of quantum communication is slightly … different than in Trinity. Without the inherent quantum signal of an AI sphere to assist in the transmission of heavily encrypted data, the physical machinery required to perform similar duties is necessarily an order of magnitude bigger. Individual receivers may be no larger than a proteus, but the primary Quantum Communication Rig is … is … one hundred feet by one hundred feet by … by one hundred feet.” Herrig risked a look at Garth. No sign of anger or dismay so far. “B-based on the recent abuses this most powerful form of telecommunications was put to, the … the rig is no longer legally permitted to be moved, and is to be outfitted with tracking devices that are to be monitored and maintained by a legally approved representative of the Latelian government.”

  “Well shit,” Garth replied casually, though he struggled with a fit of rage at being outmaneuvered by Doans again, “no wonder no one’s bought the effing thing. Doans wants someone to buy the building, huh? All right, fine. While we’re at it,” he grinned evilly, “send Doans a fake arm and a leg along with the check.” Herrig opened his mouth, forcing Garth to rush ahead. “And don’t tell me how much it costs. I don’t care. Ooh! Better yet, tell Doans that if she lowers the price by twenty-five percent, I’ll donate an equal amount to charity of her choice.”

  “A good idea, sa. Then, when you bend over …” Herrig closed his mouth, shook his head. There was no point. Even with a price tag of a hundred billion dollars –buying the building meant buying whatever remained inside, as well as licensing fees for the equipment- Garth could afford dozens of such expenditures before having to worry. “I apologize, sa. That was uncalled for. I will do as you ask. If I may ask a question?”

  “Only if you promise me that the next time you start a colorful insult, you finish it. That one sounded saucy.”

  Herrig nodded weakly. “Are you planning on buying Hospitalis? I’d like to know now. It’ll give me time to prepare.”

  “You think they’d let me?” Garth asked sincerely. When Herrig frowned, he persisted. “Buy the planet, I mean. ‘All Hail Garth Nickels, Owner of Hospitalis’. We could get some orchestral music playing all over the place every time I walk into a building. Nice ring. People throwing flowers on the ground as I walk
by …” The look of profound horror on Herrig’s face was just too much. He loose with hearty laugh, drawing curious stares from his staff. “Just messin’, Herrig. Wouldn’t dream of buying Hospitalis. It’s not in mint condition.”

  “Well … well. That’s great to hear, sa.” Herrig took a deep breath.

  “Alix tells me you’ve been house hunting. Anything I can help with?”

  Herrig, head suddenly bent to his prote, gestured for a few second’s silence. He spoke when he was done. “Er, no, thank you, Garth.”

  Garth nodded at Herrig’s prote. “Anything I need to know?”

  “Not specifically, no.” Herrig pointed out one of the staffers in the other room, a young blonde man with a shock of bright blue locks down the middle of his skull. “Sa Boren is our resident expert on technological rights. The portion of your Conglomeration documents he’s working on is a mess, sa. He’s just given me an update. Are you sure you wouldn’t care to tell us which areas of science and technology you’re looking at? It’ll make the task of earning government approval much easier, and if we could further limit or reduce the fields you wish to work in, the costs will come down. Blanket acceptances are a rare commodity these days.”

  “Guillfoyle again.” Garth pulled a face when Herrig nodded. The repercussions of that man’s foulness were far reaching indeed. If Ashok Guillfoyle wasn’t locked tightly inside The Peak, he’d drop by and scare the shit out of the idiot all over again. “What’s the news on me being allowed to own and operate a prote maker?”

  Herrig indicated Garth’s Sheet. “As ever, answers are in the documents you’re not reading: the moment you purchased the Guillfoyle building and all of its assets, you came into possession of not one but four advanced prote-machines.”

  “Oh yeah?” Garth demanded, excited. His palms started itching. “Hot dog.” He rose to leave.

  Herrig practically leaped from his chair to grab hold of Garth’s shoulder. “Sa! Sa! Please, wait.” When Garth slowed his escape, Herrig pushed on. “You own them, yes, but until you either hire someone trained in their use or you receive the education yourself, using one is severely punishable in a court of law. They’re incredibly dangerous to use without the proper training and expertise. For once, this is something you cannot leap into!”