Payback Is A Bitch

by Michael Anderle

  But so was everyone else.

  Perhaps an AI could break into their systems, but she doubted the EI could get past their firewalls.

  Addix sighed. No, this was going to require something other than digital theft.

  Adolphin, Aboard The Lady Princess

  “Lady,” Addix called, pulling off her robe. She rarely wore it anymore when she was alone since it was vastly impractical.

  “Yes?”

  She sat down on her specialized chair on the bridge and leaned back. “Lock us up and request permission to leave in twelve hours. I’ve got nothing to go on at the moment, and I’d rather meet the team in space. I’ll give them the schematics of the building and you can provide access to your digital efforts to date. Perhaps ArchAngel will provide insight.”

  Addix knew Lady was an EI rather than an AI, but she would bet credits that she had just sniffed because Addix had suggested an AI might be able to hack the KGB’s computer network where she couldn’t.

  “Well,” Lady began, “what if I told you I know exactly when CEO Az Th’loo will arrive on Adolphin?”

  Addix straightened. “Don’t play with me. Do you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, when?”

  “He is here now,” the EI replied.

  The forward projection screen came to life and displayed drone footage, probably from a news drone, of the beautiful ship she had seen just an hour before. The text underneath announced in bold that CEO Az Th’loo had returned to Adolphin after a one-year absence, and the reporter waxed enthusiastically about his surprise visit to the conglomerate’s corporate offices.

  “Sonofabitch,” she whispered. “That asshole just flew right over me.” Her mandibles tapped together in shock. “It’s better to be lucky than good sometimes.”

  “I will assume,” Lady told her, “you just said that you are lucky and I am good?”

  Addix chuckled. “Of course, Lady, of course.” She considered her options. “Keep our spot here, but inform the owner we are going to go sightseeing for two or three days.”

  “The ArchAngel II will be in-system tonight.”

  “Okay, one or two days,” she amended. “If we are secured, take us out.”

  “What do you want me to do with my data discovery efforts?”

  Addix mulled that request. “Did you put anything in that will give us away?”

  “No, my programs are modeled after the best data acquisition spiders. Only if they acquire information as designated by the filters will they call back for the advanced data exploit support.”

  “And how close to yours are the best data acquisition spiders?”

  “There are none better.”

  “That you have encountered.”

  “Well.” There went that sniff again. How had Addix ended up with a touchy EI? “That is true. I have not yet encountered any superior hacking algorithms.”

  She felt a slight wobble so she glanced at the readouts to confirm they were headed out. “So, if they are better than the ones you programmed,” Addix continued, refusing to drop the argument, “you might possibly never know you don’t have the best, right?”

  This time Lady didn’t answer right away.

  Addix leaned back in her chair, “I’m going to take a nap. Why don’t you get back to me with your answer when I wake up?”

  23

  Planet Adolphin, CEO’s Personal Residence

  Az’s personal transport slid into the bay, barely touching down before four of his security personnel got out and headed for the entry. The first confirmed the security hadn’t been tampered with, then issued the security code for the day.

  It changed every planetary day.

  The doors unlocked and they went in, sweeping the house’s main, upper, and basement levels before providing the “all clear” so Az could leave the shuttle. This was their typical order of business when he first arrived.

  Az swept through the inside service area and into the kitchen from the main bay. Normally he would enter and exit through the front door and never see these parts of the residence.

  They were for the workers, not for him.

  However, security wanted to keep him out of sight right now, since the news drones had been alerted to his presence and were hovering some distance away. They were close enough for their long-range optics to get a clear shot.

  “Damn, those newsies are annoying,” Az grumped to his lead security operative.

  “Sorry, but it’s the price you pay to be at the top, sir,” he replied as he headed out to secure the back of the house.

  “I know. That’s why I stay away so much.” Az waved him off and headed upstairs to his personal suite. When he turned the corner at the top of the stairs, he nodded to the two guards stationed outside his double-wide suite doors. “I’m just going to take a nap, then make a quick trip to the office.”

  The short nap ended up being a full night’s sleep and the team left before early rush hour in the morning.

  Az had been more tired than he had thought.

  His executive shuttle’s darkened windows allowed him to see out, but no one outside could see in so he took in his surroundings for a few minutes as the local star curved across the horizon. The buildings’ white spires shone brightly as the city below them woke up.

  Az pulled up his tablet to check his schedule for the day. Anytime he was in the city he had three days of boring and tedious meetings to attend before anything else could be scheduled—yet another reason for staying out of the corporate office.

  He was dressed in an impeccably tailored Geuuitve suit, which had been modified for his Leath build. It accentuated his square jaw.

  He was, he thought, a very striking figure when dressed for the high-level business atmosphere of Adolphin. He couldn’t wear military garb anymore for obvious reasons, but his business attire announced his power.

  As the shuttle set down he went through his secondary mailbox, but there was nothing he needed to know from his partners.

  Good. He didn’t want to deal with either Uleq or Imon at the moment.

  It took the better part of half a stan to reach his office suite. When she greeted him, his personal assistant acted like he was there every day.

  “First meeting, mid-morning. This will allow you to review any presentation notes necessary. For every meeting there is a second tab where I’ve summarized the content—the information you might need and any secondary conclusions from others. On the third tab are the political entities that will be affected by the decisions discussed in that meeting.”

  Az thanked her and accepted the tablet, pocketing his own. With a press of his finger, he pulled up his message queue as he closed his office’s door behind himself.

  Imon had sent a message that had been routed through a tertiary email location, arriving since he had stepped into the building.

  “Goptek Major Operation partially successful. Unfortunately, three cases of food poisoning affecting our people. No consumers known to be affected.”

  Az read it again.

  Three of Imon’s people had been killed, and he didn’t have a body or know who had done it?

  Az reached up and rubbed a tusk and his eyes narrowed. Who could be onto their operation? More importantly, how had someone gotten onto their operation?

  The only logical answer was that it was those he was trying to eradicate. Apparently they didn’t think that staying on Devon until Az was successful was a viable solution. Further, they had resources that could find the connection with the foodstuffs, get information on Goptek Major, and kill the team stationed there to take out anyone sniffing around.

  And get back off-planet.

  That could and would explain how his allies who had attacked the planet had been wiped out; if they knew in advance they could have set up an ambush. A little impractical to suggest that all the ships had been destroyed, but plausible. Hell, as an ex-military man he could think of three ways to make it happen.

  Mines were solutions
one and two. Massive ships slugging it out would be a third, but the most unlikely.

  No, it had probably been an ambush.

  And they had tracked the missing missiles to Goptek Major. Az looked at the plan for that operation and noted that Uleq had provided proper instructions, but then his eyes narrowed.

  Uleq had tagged all of them as having come from him. That back-stabbing Torcellan.

  Az tapped a button on his tablet and his secretary answered, “Sir?”

  “Cancel all meetings. Not feeling well, I don’t think I’ve come out of this last trip healthy. Tell everyone I apologize and I’ll get back with them as soon as I’m better.”

  “But sir…”

  He cut her off. His stomach was queasy, but it wasn’t due to travel.

  Az pulled out his personal tablet and connected to a private message queue. After typing We no longer need Torin’s help he slipped the tablet back into his pocket and opened his door. Putting up a hand to stop his secretary’s immediate comments he left, taking the back stairs to the fastest path out of the building.

  It didn’t take a half-stan to leave the place.

  When Az exited the building his personal shuttle was waiting with the doors open and two of his security guards standing by. He slipped inside and they followed, closing the doors.

  “Not the main house,” he told them. “Take me to my chalet.”

  If there was going to be a fight, he wanted to be surrounded by enough land to make sure it wouldn’t spill over and hit the neighbors.

  In deep space far from the Planet Adolphin

  The Lady Princess was dark, barely releasing any energy when the alarms went off.

  Addix bolted awake from her nap.

  “Sorry!” The alarms shut off. “The proximity alarms were still set. I didn’t expect ArchAngel to arrive so close to us.”

  Addix looked at the screen in front of the captain’s chair. Her nap had gone on for longer than she had expected.

  The ArchAngel II was too far away to see with the naked eye, but close enough that on the screen she appeared to be practically sitting on top of them.

  “Take us in.” Addix yawned. “I’ll get dressed and meet our new team members. Make sure we communicate with ArchAngel for any supplies we might need. Stock us up.”

  “Understood, Addix.”

  Fifteen minutes later their ship was swallowed by one of the ship’s bays on the ArchAngel II.

  —

  “So.” Addix pointed to the different seats in the conference room on The Lady Princess. “We can sit and chat, or you can get some sleep in the suites over there.” She looked around. “You will probably need to get out of your armor if you want to sleep. There are two areas in the back of the ship for supplies. Plenty of room there to change, since I’m not trading at the moment.”

  Michael had spoken with Addix from time to time but had never worked with the insect-looking alien. Bethany Anne had spoken highly of the spymaster and that was enough for him. “Who is our target?” he asked.

  Akio stayed standing as did Eve, but John, Eric, Scott, Darryl, Tabitha, and Gabrielle found places to sit.

  Addix, her black robe covering her body, pointed to a wall behind Michael. He turned to see an image.

  “He is ugly,” Michael stated flatly. “Looks like a standing warthog.”

  John chuckled, shaking his head. “You are going to have to understand that we work with dozens of different species here in space, Michael. You can’t just randomly toss out comments about their looks.”

  Michael stared blankly at John, who put up his hands. “Right. Sensitivity awareness and training can start next decade.” He looked at Gabrielle. “You might make a note of that for BA.”

  She smirked.

  Michael returned his attention to Addix.

  She pointed to the video. “This is the CEO of Kertheck G’loxx and B’rkleth, otherwise known as KGB. This conglomerate spans dozens of worlds and multiple systems. It was under his authority, implemented by the vice-president, that the materials were moved from Goptek Minor to Goptek Major, leaving the missiles without any security. They had been marked as foodstuffs in the inventory system, so no one paid them much attention. The pirates arrived, on-loaded the missiles, and took off. It wasn’t until the news broke about the event that anyone started looking, and that was how I found out about it.”

  “From the news?” Michael asked.

  “Yes. One of our contacts sent us the information.”

  Michael just nodded his understanding.

  She continued, “When I arrived on Goptek Major I entertained two employees of KGB who told me that the system hadn’t been updated appropriately. And when I left those contacts, I was attacked in an alley.”

  “You went into an alley and they attacked you, or you lead them into an alley and attacked them?” Michael asked.

  “The latter,” she clarified. Apparently he was accustomed to being the hunter, not the prey. Like recognized like, it seemed.

  “What were they?”

  “Three Shrillexians. A hit team,” she answered. “We had lost two assets—one down, one dead. Bethany Anne wanted me to personally work this angle.”

  Michael was watching the screen, etching the face in front of him into his brain. “She made a good choice.”

  Addix looked at John Grimes, who had opened his mouth to say something. He glanced at Michael and shut it.

  Addix wondered why he was being so quiet.

  “Where is he now?” Michael asked.

  Addix was about to answer when Lady interrupted, “He has left the corporate headquarters in the business quarter and flown out. Destination is expected to be his chalet.”

  Addix’ eyes narrowed. “Why would he rush to his chalet? I would have expected him to have a month of meetings.”

  “The guilty flee when no one is looking, but in this case I suspect he is onto us being onto him,” Akio answered.

  Addix’s mandibles tapped in frustration. “Lady, did your data acquisition efforts alert him?”

  “Unlikely,” the EI answered. “Until I reconnect with the system I can’t verify that, however.”

  “Assume they did, or we did, or someone did,” Michael stated. “Why would he choose to go to a chalet? Is this similar to a chalet in Europe—a beautiful home up in the mountains away from everyone else?”

  “His is, yes.” Pictures of a modern-looking domicile appeared on the wall. The images had been pulled from magazine pages.

  “Someone got their house in last year’s House Beautiful,” Gabrielle commented. “And it is beautiful.”

  “Too stark, too much rock,” Eve argued. “Needs more rounded corners.”

  John eyed the huge building. “Don’t worry, we are going to help him remodel.”

  Tabitha looked from Eve to Akio and raised an eyebrow.

  Akio shrugged. He wasn’t sure if their little EI in an android body had ascended to AI yet—and now wasn’t the time to have that discussion—but one of the ways to tell was that the EI started offering opinions that weren’t based on facts.

  Like whether this house was pretty.

  “Okay.” Michael’s eyes narrowed. “Go back two images. He has the high ground. Going up the side of that mountain is asking for someone to drop explosives on your head. Why wouldn’t we just blow it off the mountain?”

  “Adolphin has a weird set of laws. It boils down to this: if you use missiles or armaments similar to missiles they will hunt you down. If however you keep all weapons, including rounds fired, destruction, and so forth on the property, then whatever happens is considered a personal issue.”

  “What about a typical robbery?” Scott asked.

  Addix shrugged, “If you kill them on your property there are no questions asked, but if someone comes looking for a body you have to prove the killing was warranted. Most immediately call for the police to investigate. If you fail to speak about deaths or other infractions on your property, the cops assume you have someth
ing to hide and try to prove you guilty.”

  “That’s…” Scott thought about it a moment. “Rather proficient.”

  “Yes, so to summarize: bring the attention of the police to the situation as soon as possible so forensics can confirm what happened or you are guilty unless proven innocent.”

  “I assume they have enough coverage over the planet to figure out missiles, but what about vapor?”

  “Don’t do it, Michael,” John Grimes interrupted. Michael turned his attention to John, whose face was stone-cold serious. “Don’t even think of taking off the armor. Not only would Bethany Anne kill us—and by ‘us’ I mean you three times over and the rest of us just the once very, very slowly, but the capabilities of defensive armaments on this world are a lot better than anything that was ever available back on Earth. If they don’t have shields that would fry you in your Myst state, there is a good chance they can tell something is there. You solidify and you die.”

  Michael thought about it for a moment. “I can attack while still mostly Myst.”

  “Who knows what can harm you as Myst?” John shook his head. “Don’t chance it. We haven’t had enough opportunities to figure out what can hurt you in that state.”

  Michael frowned. “We should have tested this.”

  Akio told his friend, “They have technology here that makes what we faced in the Hadron Collider look like tinker toys.”

  “And if you think for one minute,” Darryl commented, “that any of us would purposely and with intent try to shoot, kill, stab, or poke you in any way, shape, or form just so we could confirm if you could be hurt in Myst form while Bethany Anne was pregnant?” He shook his head. “You are out of your Gott Verdammt mind.”

  The side of Michael’s mouth curved up. “Good point.” He turned back to the video wall. “What about air defenses?”

  Lady interjected, “I’ve been able to tap into satellite images. I can’t give us the highest resolution, but it is clear enough that there are three anti-ship emplacements on the property.”