Dammit! What the hell was that?
The male agent smiled. “See? It’s always better to cooperate,” he said. “Why do you think there are Trilisks out there?”
Jason did not answer.
“How do you know there’s Trilisks out there?” the woman asked.
“Magnus and Telisa found out about them. Telisa talked to one,” Jason said. “Why do I answer everything she asks?”
The man shrugged. “Drugs? Instinctual desire to please a pretty woman? Link programs? All of the above?”
“Dammit!” Jason said. He tried to steel himself.
“What are you going to do once you find those Trilisks, Jason?” the beautiful agent asked.
“Kill them.”
“How, Jason?”
“Very soon there will be alien strike satellites above Earth. Sent by another alien we call Shiny. I’m going to help target any Trilisks that try to escape the PIT team. Or any new ones that show up.”
“I take it the Trilisks figured out how to look just like us,” the woman said.
“Yes. They live in human bodies. Human, but better. Stronger, faster, even immortal.”
The agent traded looks with the man who had started the interrogation.
“I’m Agent Corbin. This is Agent Jones. Core World Security.”
“You have to believe me,” Jason said. “Earth is under alien control. We’re just here to stop them. Then we leave. Just let me do my job.” Jason knew they would never let him continue, but he had to try.
Do I have any evidence?
“We believe you,” Corbin said.
“What? Really? That’s great!”
“We’re going to help you coordinate the strike grid,” he said. Jason’s link access returned.
What is he doing? Pretending to be convinced? What can he gain? More information?
“You think I’m crazy,” Jason guessed.
“You’re not crazy,” Corbin said. “The sensor array is real. You paid a lot of credits to communications agents to set it up.”
They think I’m part of setting the scene for an alien attack.
“You know, aliens would not need the sensor array to attack Earth. It’s only because what I say about the Trilisks is real,” Jason said.
“We know you’re telling the truth. The truth check, remember? You passed. And we know your hardware is real. True, you might be working for invaders and not even know it. But we have control of the array now. We’ll see your targets and your data identifying them.”
Jason nodded.
“Truth is, we’ve known about the influence of aliens on Earth for a while now,” Corbin said. “If what you say is true, you’re our best chance of getting back control.”
Jason could not believe his luck. Had he really just found allies in the attack?
Or are they totally just playing me to get more information? But why? I already have some ridiculous drug or something that’s making me talk like a schoolboy.
“The attack on the outer solar system is from this alien, Shiny you call him?” This time it was Corbin speaking. Jason realized Corbin kept asking first because they wanted to spare him the humiliation of being forced to answer. Jason decided not to fight this time.
“Yes. He just needs to get past the Space Force to remove the Trilisks.”
“What’s in it for him?”
I’m risking too much by discussing it. He’s just pumping me for information. I’m betraying my friends.
“He wants to steal their technology. As advanced as he is, he’s not at a godlike level like they were.”
Before the man asked the next question, Jason had an idea.
“You will check out the targets we get, won’t you? You won’t feed it through.”
“What?”
“I know you won’t fire without checking out the target. But that’s going to alert the Trilisks. You’ll lose track of it. They outclass us in so many ways. Striking them down without warning is our only hope. But I know you will try and capture the ones we test positive.”
“Convince me,” Corbin said. “Why should I strike them down… how did you choose the locations of the sensors? You already have an idea of where they are?”
Who they are. If I tell him its a laundry list of Earth’s most powerful…
“You are right, we won’t fire blindly on Earth citizens,” Corbin continued. “Even though we suspect alien influence. We’ll nab them, stun them before they even know what’s up. Then we can check them out.”
“You’re playing with fire,” Jason said. “There’s a reason our plan involves just instantaneously vaporizing them.”
The man seemed to be genuinely listening.
Too good to be true. He’s pretending to listen so he can get more from me.
“Why are you pretending to be nice to me?”
“Because I want to save the Earth.”
Jason shook his head. “You have no idea how much I hope you’re telling the truth.”
“Let’s move out. We’ve set up a temporary command center nearby. We can coordinate the operation from there. How much time do we have?”
I thought this suite was their command center.
“Another couple of hours,” Jason said. “But I should coordinate with my friend in space before that.”
“Shiny?” asked Jones.
“Cilreth,” Jason said, wincing as he gave up more information. He was outclassed by these interrogators and he knew it. If only Shiny had given him means to resist. The PIT team needed something for this.
He stood Jason up and released his cuffs. Jason was still suspicious.
Don’t believe anything. Question everything.
“Okay. Is it far? Which building?”
“Stark’s.”
“Excuse me, I thought you said—”
“Stark’s,” repeated Corbin. He pointed straight up for emphasis. Jason did not look up. He knew he could not see the top of the adjacent spacescraper from here.
Stark’s was a dark, loud dance club that docked atop spacescrapers all around the world. The club was queen of the incarnate scene for the rich and famous. Most of the population of the core worlds had been there virtually, only a few elite had been there in person. For a fee a tourist would be allowed to inhabit the club in a virtual state though they did not exist to the people really there. At one point or another almost everyone had been a ghost in Stark’s.
“Stark’s is ours,” Corbin said simply.
“Ridiculous!” spat Jason.
“I think what you told me was a bit more out there. Come with me,” Corbin said, a hint of impatience in his voice.
“Uhm…” Jason said uncertainly.
“Yes, we’ll be there incarnate,” Corbin said. They walked out of the suite flanked by men and women in suits.
“Good thing I wasn’t ordered to keep a low profile,” Jason said.
“We won’t have time to mingle. Saving the Earth, and all.”
“Right. Of course.”
Jones read Jason’s demeanor.
“I’m sorry, Jason,” she said. “I’ve been through it. I know it’s humiliating, not being able to resist questions.”
“Well of course I’m in the mood to accept your apology, given I’m not in control of myself.”
“Yes. I’m apologizing anyway, for what it’s worth.”
“I don’t care about the humiliation,” Jason said. “I’ve let my team down.”
She nodded. She looked genuinely sad, he thought.
Or is it just the drugs and the link hack?
The group got into a lift. Some of the suits remained outside. Four of them including Jones and Corbin were with Jason. The lift accelerated them sideways first, taking them into the next building. Then it whisked them up, up, up. Jason could tell they really were going to the top platform.
The lift opened. Jason saw men in red and black outfits.
Stark’s security. They were rumored to be among the best private security on th
e planet. Jason doubted it. More likely the best security forces kept a low profile, while Stark’s had everything to gain by buffing up the reputation of their security with a lot of propaganda.
The group was ushered into the club.
This is insane. Why here of all places? Maybe I’ve completely lapsed into unconsciousness and this is all a crazy dream.
They walked into the main entrance of the club. It looked like an upscale spaceport. Though the club did at times travel into space, it was mostly just the theme Stark’s had chosen. The light dropped and the blare of music rose as they passed the first sound curtain. The previous song was just ramping down. Jason looked around. He saw two dozen rich, handsome men and even more sleek, beautiful women. His group got onto the right ‘runway’, a long wide conveyor of lighter colored floor with big red arrows that flashed down it, indicating the direction of travel. The runway ran around the outside perimeter of the club.
Jason heard Shiori start to scold the clientele. He searched for her in the control nest and found her. A dark Asian beauty with spiked black hair, Shiori spoke to the audience between songs. Her job in the club had bought her almost as much celebrity as the famous people who came to the club incarnate. Jason knew some Japanese, but Shiori’s pointed and witty remarks were far too complex for his comprehension. And it did not matter; her voice was beautiful and it all blended into the atmosphere. She was supposed to sound like she was making announcements on the public link channel of an airport, but she was actually launching the most vile insults imaginable.
Blazing Flame Dance tore through the club, causing it to come alive around a hundred dancers.
A woman in a black dress with flickering green lightning dancing across its curvy surface approached the group.
“Dance me up?” she called, beckoning Jason. Corbin paused. Was that a slight smile on his lips?
Jason gave the woman his best smile. “Raincheck? I’ve got to save the Earth.”
“You’d better,” the woman said, and turned away.
She must have mistaken my captors for bodyguards.
Jason’s group continued. They came to one of the executive room entrances on the outside of the runway. The group moved through the entrance and activated a privacy curtain behind. The sounds of the club became muted. The dark club beyond became hazy, a feedback indicator that they were no longer visible from outside.
A wall had been put up to shield the room beyond. They walked around it and Jason saw another workplace used by Core World Security.
Seeing the number of technicians and view anchors all over the room, Jason had no doubt this was the real nerve center he had mistaken the other suite to be.
Stark’s has a CWS station? I never would have guessed in a million years. I suppose that’s the point.
Corbin pointed at a chair. Jason sat yet again. He felt no anger at being their pawn. He wondered if the drugs still coursed through his system, robbing him of self determination.
“Okay, contact your friend. Let’s get started,” Corbin said.
Jason wondered if they wanted to find Cilreth.
Good luck to them if they do, he thought. The Clacker is more than a match for them.
He connected to Cilreth.
“Jason! I thought they got you.”
“The other guys got me,” Jason said. “Core World Security. But they want to work with us.”
“Seriously? They believe you? I mean, that’s great. Well we’re gonna need their help. I’m under attack here. Cilreth2 is missing.”
“Who is that?” Corbin asked out loud.
Ah of course. Corbin is in my link, hearing my convos.
“Her… our teammate,” Jason said offline. “It could be her that’s doing the attack. Trilisks have some limited mind control.”
I can’t tell them all this crap. Concentrate.
“Give me a location on a target. We don’t have much time before it starts, from what I understand. I need to do the grab. We’ve got teams all over the Earth,” Corbin said.
Chapter 12
Cilreth watched from her dark control pod on the Clacker as the Vovokan attack satellites deployed. Their sizes varied across several classes. The biggest one packed enough punch to blow through a spacescraper all the way to the basement. Others required the target to be out in the open.
Cilreth mentally danced around the dilemma that could pose. Would killing the last Trilisk on Earth and freeing all humanity be worth wasting a spacescraper full of people? How could anyone even make a decision like that?
She checked everything. She needed to notice remaining problems now. Something caught her eye. A slight anomaly on a computing resources usage display.
What is that?
Cilreth zeroed in on a modest section of the Clacker’s computational power. It was less than one percent of her total, but it was working hard and she did not know what for. It was not doing anything Cilreth or the Clacker had told it to do.
I thought I had locked everything and everyone out. Even Shiny. Cilreth2 probably made some last minute change and didn’t have time to tell me.
Cilreth asked her link if it had suppressed any messages from her double lately. There were no deferred communications.
The anomaly grew slightly. Cilreth went to work to eradicate the incongruity. She allocated ten percent of Clacker’s computing power to finding the rogue elements and setting them back to known states. The problem seemed small, but Cilreth knew that did not mean much—at the speed of Vovokan computation, a small problem could become a big problem in the blink of an eye.
The oddity got squeezed away by her actions. She compartmentalized important systems and strengthened requirements for running tasks across logical boundaries in the ship. Vovokan computers had a maze of authorization types, each of which had a continuum of security levels. It all made her head hurt.
There. Cilreth felt the flush of victory. Until a moment later, when she saw it crop up again.
What’s the problem Cilreth? This is a symptom. What’s the source? An attack. Do Vovokan computers get sick?
“Cilreth. I need you. I need your super-help!” she sent to Cilreth2.
There was no answer. Cilreth checked Cilreth2’s location. There was no report.
“What the…”
Cilreth2 was not answering… was she having trouble on one of Shiny’s ships? Would the alien have locked her out of everything?
Shiny may have quarantined her as an extra safety measure.
Cilreth forced herself to think about other, even darker alternative theories.
A Trilisk could have control of her. Maybe she only pretended to leave the Clacker. Stealthed out? Or hacked out? She could be doing this.
Cilreth shook her head. “I don’t know it’s her. I don’t know who it is,” she said to herself aloud.
Jason came back online and requested a connection.
Hrm. Suspicious. Cilreth attached a security program to monitor his feeds.
“Jason! I thought they got you.”
“The other guys got me,” Jason said. “Core World Security. But they want to work with us.”
What’s wrong with this picture?
“Seriously? They believe you?” Cilreth decided to roll with it. “I mean, that’s great. Well we’re gonna need their help. I’m under attack here. Cilreth2 is missing.”
Coincidence? Yes. No.
Cilreth grudgingly restricted Cilreth2’s privileges to those of a simple guest of the ship. Then she started to eradicate the sick parts of the system again.
“They say it’s a no go unless we verify one first.”
“What? I’ll hack it back,” Cilreth said.
“No. We can risk one. They’re going to have a half dozen snipers stun it simultaneously. Then they’ll have some doctors check it out. If we can find one in a big city where he has a team, he says, a few minutes later, we can fire at will.”
“I still say hack it,” she said.
“Let’s keep in mind I
’m their captive…”
“That’s okay. You’re pretty new to the team,” Cilreth said. She smiled.
“Uhm…”
“Okay, Telisa’s not here so… I agree to their terms. But two minutes later and I’m going for it one way or another.”
As it is, this could be a monumental screwup. We’re talking about creatures that might be able to escape with milliseconds, who knows, maybe nanoseconds of warning. But the reality is our people won’t be able to strike that close together despite our attempts to synchronize. They are all going to find different levels of resistance.
Each of the PIT members who went out to hunt Trilisks had timetables. Those with more to do started earlier than others. The ones who found themselves ahead of schedule would delay, and those behind would try their best to take shortcuts and catch up. Everyone knew the optimum time to strike. They also knew it was an impossible order. The strikes would not all fall at the same time.
Cilreth received another link request. It identified itself as ‘Corbin’, though the source block was not filled out correctly and it came from…. CWS.
“Corbin wants to come in on the channel.”
He wants to hack us? He’ll have to get in line. No doubt he’s already listening in on Jason’s end, anyway.
Cilreth double checked her security program. No signs of any problems.
Corbin could be a Trilisk, she thought. Dammit. I’m already somehow under attack… and the deadline is approaching.
“Okay,” she said. Corbin connected. The sensor network went live.
“We have half a dozen positive scans. All over Earth,” Corbin said.
At that moment, the entire scheme, based on a theory, became more real to Cilreth.
They really are here. At least there’s not many on the surface.
“I’m selecting this one,” Jason’s voice said. “Right here in New York.”
“Okay, let me know if you change your mind about the first one. I have my hands full here,” Cilreth said.
“Acknowledged,” Jason said.
A new sliver of Vovokan computation power remained rogue. Cilreth had stamped it out several times now, but somehow, somewhere, it kept coming back.
“What’s happening?” Cilreth said to herself. She pushed down her frustration.
The Trilisk Revolution (Parker Interstellar Travels) Page 7