“Agent Alina Koval,” the woman answered. “The man you saw the other day wasn’t my partner. We just had to coordinate on some matters. It’s like you cops. We have different areas of interest, and my particular specialty and area of interest concerns the Tin Men you’ve been running into. I’m the primary now for this situation, but I’ll be keeping him informed about what’s going on.”
Erik narrowed his eyes. “You know who they are?”
Alina nodded, an even bigger smile on her face than Captain Ragnar’s. “Yes, I do. That doesn’t mean I have all the answers about them, but I believe, given your reputation and tendencies, it might be helpful for you to know more about them, even if this case is effectively over for you. I’ve even convinced my superiors that you should have this information.”
“Wait.” Jia pointed at her, the suspicion flaring in her again. “You knew we wouldn’t leave Chen alone, didn’t you? That was why there was no one guarding him. You dangled him as bait, and outsourced his protection to us.”
“The important thing is that Dr. Chen was protected. We also needed to confirm a few things. Our methods allowed us to do that.” Alina kept an easy smile on her face. “And I’m not going to apologize for it.”
Erik snorted. “You thought we might be dirty. It was a test. You wanted to know if we were working with them.”
Alina tapped the side of her head. “You got it in one, Detective. We’ve been aware of you. It’s hard for two cops to get involved as in much trouble as you have without it making a lot of waves, even outside of Neo SoCal.”
Erik shrugged. “We do our job. Sometimes that involves shooting people and explosions.” He smiled back at her. “Not going to apologize for that.”
“You have to admit that your adventures since becoming partners might look odd and suspicious from the outside.” She glanced from one to the other. “The two of you have a tendency to run into unusually dangerous situations, and the fact the DD hasn’t yanked back your pet AI made us wonder if there was something more going on.”
Emma’s hologram winked into existence on the opposite side of the desk. She smiled at Alina. “I think you are mistaken, Agent Koval.”
Erik gave Alina credit; she didn’t flinch when Emma suddenly appeared.
“About what?” the agent asked.
“It’s my own choice to stay with Detective Blackwell. The DD can’t take me back until I’m ready to go back. The uniform boys are less interesting to me, so I’ve refused to go with them. It’s as simple as that.”
Jia frowned. “You were gambling with our lives and Dr. Chen’s. I can’t say I appreciate that, Agent Koval, and I don’t care if you thought you were testing us.”
Alina’s near-permanent smile made Jia want to slap her. “It’s not much of a gamble when you know you’ll win the bet. If you want me to apologize, I’m sorry. Oh, wait. That’s an apology, isn’t it?” She laughed and waved a hand. “This goes beyond Neo SoCal, and I wanted to make sure you two were competent and not related to the group behind these Tin Men.”
Jia’s breath slowed. Anger could wait. The truth about the cyborgs was more important. Given the uncharacteristically stern look on Erik’s face, he must have been thinking along the same lines.
“Who are they?” Erik asked. “And why do they want to kill Dr. Chen?”
Alina’s smile disappeared for the first time in the conversation. “We don’t know why they want to kill Chen, but our information suggests they’ve been planning it since before Kevin Tomlinson was fired. As for who, they are special assassins for a terrorist faction we have codenamed ‘Talos.’”
“‘Talos?’” Erik furrowed his brow as he thought. “I’ve never heard of them.”
Jia explained, “Talos is from ancient Greek myths. A bronze automaton. An ancient security bot if you want to think of it that way.”
The agent nodded. “A classically educated woman. Nice. To be clear, that’s not what they call themselves.” Alina lowered her arms and rested her hands on the desk, ignoring Captain Ragnar’s disapproving looks. “That’s our codename for them, given their heavy use of Tin Men and killer bots. We’ve been tracking them for some time, and we believe they are receiving funding from certain insurrectionist groups, but potentially also corporations. There’s a lot of money flowing to Talos, and that’s one of the most likely explanations.”
Erik grunted. “If a corporation is funding a terrorist group, shouldn’t the CID be shutting them down?”
“Yes, but they need evidence.” Alina pointed at Erik’s left arm. “You’ve fought these guys a few times. You’ve seen how modified they are. This isn’t just about them not being Purists. The level of tech inside them, including their final internal cleaning trick, is well beyond what some street clinic could pull off, even if it was remotely legal.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty annoying. Is there any way to stop that? I used disruptor rounds this time, and those didn’t work.”
Alina shrugged. “We haven’t been able to take one alive or dead and preserved yet. The good thing is we don’t run into a huge number of those guys. That makes sense. The maintenance on that level of cybernetics means a lot of money is splashing around to keep them ready for murder. It’s not just the mods, either.” She hopped off the desk. “Talos has a major interest in different types of advanced research in a variety of areas, which means it’s not unusual to run into them using cutting-edge prototype-advanced tech.”
Erik’s jaw tightened. “Such as adaptive optical camouflage that can survive movement? Like, infantry scale?”
Alina stared at him as if she were evaluating them. “Our agents have encountered Talos operatives using that kind of technology in recent months. It’s rare, but they have it. That’s one of the reasons we’re convinced various corporations must be involved, or at least people from some of those corporations. More than a few times, we’ve found tech that was linked to corporate R&D in the hands of a Talos agent.”
“And government labs?” Jia challenged.
She turned toward Jia. “There is some concern there, too,” Alina admitted.
Erik’s nostrils flared. “I see.”
Jia almost asked about Molino, but it was up to Erik to decide when he wanted to bring in Captain Ragnar, so she refrained. “What’s their goal? If it’s to make money, it seems stupid to spend so much on expensive field agents.”
“We’re not sure.” Alina shrugged. “They’ve captured scientists and researchers before for their own purposes. They’ve also assassinated others. The pattern isn’t clear.”
Jia gestured to Emma. “Did they have anything to do with Emma being stolen from the military?”
The AI sighed. “I would hope that didn’t involve a bunch of dreary fleshbags wanting to become machines. It’d be rather pathetic.”
Captain Ragnar’s eyebrows lifted.
Alina smirked. “Not to our knowledge, but they have targeted AI researchers in the past, so it’s not impossible. We doubt they were, though. They don’t mind making use of criminals, but they tend to clean up after themselves if by cleaning up, we count brutally killing people who work with them.”
“Like Kevin Tomlinson,” Jia observed.
“Exactly.” Alina stopped and tilted her head as if listening to something, then clucked her tongue. “I’ve got to go, but I did want you to have that information. It’s entirely possible you’ll run across them again since you two can’t avoid getting in trouble. With Chen under CID protection, you shouldn’t have to worry about that particular case for now, but it’s also not impossible that Talos might decide that you two are loose ends who are better off dead.”
Erik chuckled. “In other words, we’re still off the case, but we might get killed because of it.”
“No one’s telling you that you can’t defend yourself, Detective.” Alina headed toward the door. “If you have reason to believe a future operation involves Talos, we would appreciate it if you contacted us. We can bring resources to bear that are
not normally available.”
“Does that go both ways?” Jia asked.
“Potentially,” Alina offered. “For now, the CID will handle the Chen matter, and we at the ID will continue to hunt Talos, but I’ll just note that no one’s going to harass you if you stumble into additional evidence. Thank you for your service to the UTC.” She offered them a final nod and exited the room.
Erik and Jia turned toward Captain Ragnar as the door shut behind the agent.
He shrugged. “I don’t know if there is much you can do going forward. I’m not going to officially close the case, but I don’t want you spending a lot of time on it. Without access to Chen, there’s not much you can do.”
“Am I the only one who found that whole thing suspicious?” Jia asked. “If they want our help, why take over the case, then basically tell us they don’t care if we follow up? And that’s after admitting they were risking our lives to see if we were working with Talos?”
“Talos isn’t the only one who likes to use pawns,” Erik suggested. He cast a baleful glance at the door. “But at least Chen’s being guarded by law enforcement now. I’ve got my issues with the CID, but this is a high-profile case, and they’ll protect him. That makes things easier for us.”
Captain Ragnar grinned. “The ID sent her because I put pressure on them, and they probably think it’s less trouble to give you half the truth than to continue to deny things. The real question is, do you two think Talos will come after you?”
Erik shrugged. “Who knows? We don’t always have the best luck.” He patted his arm where he’d been shot. “But things haven’t been working out well for them either.”
“I’m going to keep you on light duty for the next few days, and I want you to be careful.” Captain Ragnar chuckled. “I used up a lot of saved favors to get you that small piece of the truth. I’d rather it not be wasted by you getting yourselves killed.”
Jia chuckled. “I’d rather not be killed for personal reasons.”
“I’ve got a few things to take care of before I die,” Erik declared.
Jia waited until they returned to their office to ask a lingering question as the two split up, going to their respective desks. “If Agent Koval wants us to continue poking around, how would we even do that? The company’s not going to cooperate with us now that it’s a CID case, and we don’t have Chen.”
Erik sat down, a dark look on his face. “I’m going to check with the colonel. Maybe he knows something. If they are who I think they are, I’m going to need his help.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Erik pushed into the abandoned Shadow Zone building.
The tall ceilings and large, open rooms suggested it had been a warehouse in decades past. A small amount of light from the streetlights outside made it inside through holes and windows, but the deep darkness obscured most details, like a shroud marking a dead building.
Erik had contacted Adeyemi to arrange a meeting in the Shadow Zone but had received a message changing the location at the last moment. If Talos was working with a rogue government faction and watching Erik, they might already know he was working with Adeyemi and set up a trap.
It didn’t matter what they tried. He didn’t care if he had to leave a bloody trail across the entire UTC to avenge every soldier who had died on Molino.
Erik crept toward an open doorway, the light on his PNIU illuminating the area in front of him. Colonel Adeyemi emerged from the darkness with a frown on his face. Several soldiers walked slowly behind him, rifles at the ready.
Was it an assassination? It wasn’t impossible, but it didn’t make sense. Whatever else the colonel was involved in, his son had died, and he wanted vengeance. He wouldn’t sacrifice Erik to save himself.
Erik put his gun away and gestured around the barren room. Rats skittered in the darkness, and water dripped into fetid pools.
“What’s with this place?” Erik asked. “And why the last-second change?” He looked past the colonel at his four bodyguards. They hadn’t lowered their weapons.
“It doesn’t hurt to be careful,” the colonel replied. He gestured for his men to lower their guns. “I got some last-minute intel that made me concerned someone might be following me, and we both have too much to lose.”
Erik nodded. “Agents from the Intelligence Directorate?”
“Not sure,” the colonel admitted. “I have my issues with those ghosts, but overall, I’ve not had much trouble with them. What I’m curious about is how you got them so stirred up. I don’t know everything that’s been going on here, but it’s obvious the ID has put extra resources into Neo SoCal recently.”
Erik shrugged. “Funny. I’ve fought several full-conversion Tin Men lately. The short version is, I might have bumped into Talos. You know about them?”
“Heard the name.” Colonel Adeyemi frowned, considering. “You think they have something to do with Molino? What little I’ve heard makes it sound like they might be exclusively Earth-based, or at least they’ve stuck to the core worlds. It’d be strange if they were that far out. I haven’t looked at them much because of that.”
“I don’t know.” Erik’s gaze drifted from shadow to shadow, seeking out hidden enemies. “A well-funded organization with advanced technology sounds like a good candidate to explain what happened, and that’s assuming they are terrorists and not some ID project that got out of hand. The level of tech they’re using is pretty re-goddamned-diculous.”
“I understand what you’re saying.” Colonel Adeyemi looked down, his forehead wrinkling. “You want to know something that a lot of people don’t know, Erik?”
Erik stopped looking in the shadows and turned to the colonel. “If it gets me closer to revenge, then yeah.”
“I don’t know about that, but it’ll help you understand why that group is more dangerous than you’d think. First, let me ask you a question. Why do you think the military and the ID don’t take more advantage of cybernetic modifications? You’ve got an arm that’s helped you out in a lot of ways. Imagine a whole platoon full of powerful cyborgs.”
Erik shrugged. “Most people are at least a little Purist. I don’t mind my arm, but I wouldn’t want to give up my entire body.”
“There’s always someone willing to go farther. Have you ever heard of Cybernetic Psychosis Syndrome?”
Erik shook his head. “No. What’s that?” He glanced at his left arm.
“It’s ironic.” Colonel Adeyemi snorted. “All the Purist beliefs that have taken over society, including certain laws, yet the powers-that-be want to soft-peddle the real risk because they don’t want various truths to come out.”
“And what’s this real risk? This syndrome?”
“Cyborg super-soldiers have been tried in the past,” Colonel Adeyemi explained, his voice tense. “Multiple times. There had even been a burst of research after the first contact with the Zitarks. We knew how to kill humans, but aliens? Certain off-limit ideas didn’t seem so off-limits once those space raptors showed up. A lot of that stuff only petered out about twenty years ago. The problem always came down to the CPS.” He wrinkled his nose in disgust. “As far as I’m concerned, that was just nature telling us we’d gone too far. I don’t understand the particulars, but when you replace too many pieces of a person with cybernetics, there are some sort of neurofeedback problems that lead to mental instability. A weapon that turns its user insane is useless. The research was abandoned.”
Erik frowned. “Those Talos guys were ruthless, but they didn’t seem insane.”
“That’s what worries me, since I’ve heard the same thing before. It could mean a couple of things. Talos might have solved the CPS problem, or they just don’t care, and they use people until they start losing their minds. If they’ve solved the issue, even if we ignore the moral implications, this means they’ve got access to technology more advanced than the military and the ID, and it might not just be limited to cyborgs.”
“They’re tough, but they still die. I don’t know if I
’m that worried, but it is annoying to fight them.”
Colonel Adeyemi looked thoughtful. “All of that makes me think they might be linked to the conspiracy, and about your efforts since returning to Earth.”
“What are you thinking?”
The colonel locked eyes with Erik. “I understand why you became a cop, and you’ve found some leads here, but we’ve gone months between decent leads. I don’t know if you being a cop is the best way to track down the people behind the conspiracy.”
Erik didn’t look away. He’d wondered the same thing, but he didn’t have any other ideas.
He’d gotten lucky in the sense that the conspiracy had thrown a few assassins his way, but other than knowing something was taken from Molino and having a few possible suspects, including the government, Talos, and Ceres Galactic, things had slowed down. That didn’t mean he was ready to give up, but he understood Adeyemi’s position.
“Being a cop at least gets me investigative resources,” he observed. “If being a cop isn’t a good way to handle this, what is?”
Colonel Adeyemi took a deep breath, his dark eyes digging into Erik’s soul. “I know a big part of you died on Molino with all those men and women. I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to just move on. If being a cop and stopping crime helps you quiet your demons, I’m not going to stop you. I’ve seen good soldiers destroyed by PTSD, and you’ve already been through a lot.” He sighed. “But if it’s not about that, if it’s about avenging the Knights Errant, you need to consider moving on. I know a lot of people who could use someone like you, people who owe me favors, and who we both could push a little more directly our way. There are contractors who work with the military and military intelligence.”
“And you think I’d do better working for someone like that?” Erik sounded doubtful. “I don’t want to get sidetracked by getting dropped onto moons to kill insurrectionists.”
“You don’t think you’re getting sidetracked fighting terrorists and gangsters?”
Erik squared his shoulders. “The path led here, and I’m finding evidence here.”
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