by Wolfe Locke
Kubrick gave one of the drinks to Niles and then gulped the other in one go. Niles took a sip and nodded. Almost the same taste, but not quite. Still refreshing, though.
Kubrick sat down opposite him and leaned back. He looked confident, like he controlled everything. It was exactly how Niles assumed Grisham would feel in a similar situation.
“Scar saw the first hit, the kid,” Kubrick said. Niles perked up at the revelation and leaned in. Kubrick took off his shades, and his eyes were blue, the blue of the desert people. It must be a modification, I should check into that. Something though stood out to Niles, Kubrick seemed upset, sad even. He and this Scar must have been close.
“Scar was the one who told me about you too,” Kubrick said. That confused Niles, but he didn’t say anything. I thought it was Grisham’s decision to bring me in. What’s the connection to Scar?. Niles didn’t think anyone else knew he was coming in until he was finally in the facility.
“Scar saw the shot. He had everything recorded. I won’t tell you how, but we’d been watching the members of the Old Dominion for awhile. It seems like they knew it too. Trying to bring you in probably made them panic, but they were going to try and kill Scar anyway.” Kubrick explained. “You should protect yourself.”
“I am,” Niles said. Kubrick shook his head and scoffed.
“You think being in that underground bunker is what is keeping you safe?” Another surprise for Niles. This man seemed to know a lot more than Niles, and he knew where to find Niles too. This could be dangerous. Have I made another mistake? Just how much do they know about us. My first mistake cost one of the green suiters their life.
“Relax, Chief De’Santes,” Kubrick said. He sighed and sat up, pulling his shirt up, and showed off a blue fiber mesh undershirt. “This isn’t just in SynaCAID, I wear this in real life too. Just letting you know because you’re not quite as safe or protected as you may think.”
“I know what your wondering,” Kubrick said cryptically.
“Yeah? What’s that?” Niles responded.
“You want to ask me some version of how do you know this, and why am I helping you?” Kubrick said.
“And you’re wondering, because I didn’t come straight out with what I had”
“You’re wondering, and the answer is we had to wait for you guys to pay attention to what was happening before we showed any interest at all? Am I close?” he asked. Niles nodded. Kubrick smiled, nodding too.
“Most of those questions should be answered by now. You saw what happened to Scar. My group had wanted to avoid that. We just didn’t think they were that close. We thought we could slip through for a moment, you know? Get through easily.”
“Who are they?” Niles asked. “How’d you find out about them?”
“We haven’t been able to find out yet. They’re good, or at least have better firmware. It’s hard to tell, and we found out about them in whispers in deep web and started to look and pry.” Kubrick said. “Dominion at least has a team better than your folks back at the farm for the uniformed. I don’t know why they’ve chosen to attack and try to destroy SynaCAID, but I’m on my way to figuring out how they are doing it. They keep slipping past, making sure they can’t be ejected from the system. They are not undetectable to me, though. You’ve got to trust the plan.” Kubrick explained.
“Would you mind if my superior joins us in this conversation?” Niles asked. He was not sure why he wanted Grisham there, but he felt strongly about it. Kubrick smiled and shrugged. The Talon device was supposed to mask their synch from in here and make it untraceable, so Kubrick wouldn’t be able to get into the Colonel’s personal implant through the call. He was not sure, but he felt Kubrick was that kind of person.
The synch happened immediately. He wondered if Grisham had been waiting for him to call. Grisham frowned when he saw where Niles was, at least that’s what Niles assumed..
[Transmission: Are you safe? Do you need help? Have you been taken captive? That part of the system is unstable. The team hasn’t been able to contact you since you made contact. Is that him?]
“I’m Kubrick,” the man said before Niles could say anything. Cocky much? Niles wondered. “I was just telling the Chief that I can be an asset to your team. I can let you know when the Old Dominion guys are logged into the System. They have something that cloaks their presence. I can detect it immediately with my crawlers and trainers, but they get difficult to trace once they get moving in the System.
[Transmission: So you’ll be able to tell us when they slip through the System? Why should we believe you?]
Kubrick signed and shook his head. “You don’t need to,” he said. “You can stay there, waiting for the Chief to catch up with what’s going on. But I wonder what would have happened by then. More people dead? More money lost and oh! I’m sure you know what comes next when those guys you—”
[Transmission: Enough. What do you get out of this? What is it that you’re wanting in return?]
Kubrick frowned and shook his head, raising his hands up in mock hurt. On the screen, Grisham scoffed. Niles sipped on the drink, wanting to stay out of it between his boss and the only lead he really had.
[Transmission: I have trouble believing your kind are just offering this kind of help for free. What do you get out of this? Don’t say nothing.]
“No, not for nothing. Revenge and for a safe community. They killed my friend. Have you been outside your office, Colonel? SynaCAID is the only escape. Even on the good days when the air is breathable, people are scared to go out. Did you watch the news last week? Six people died from the sudden drop in air quality.
Seven Cities is kinda the only escape most of us have now. I’m just one man, but behind me, I’ve got a community of like-minded people. We want the System to survive.” Kubrick explained.
Niles frowned. Somewhere in there he heard a lie. What’s his true motivation? He had worked with secret informants and whistleblowers enough to know that they never worked for free, and there was always an angle, even when the stated motivations were technically true..
“Grisham, Kubrick says he has the identity of the first shooter,” Niles said, and on the screen, Grisham’s brows dipped. He turned to Kubrick, and the man grinned.
“Look, gentlemen, I don’t want anything from you. I wouldn’t be closely involved either, so you don’t have to worry about me. My motives, at least, are pure. I want to stop this.” Kubrick explained. “Just let me give you a name.”
[Transmission: Who is it then? Give us the name.]
“His name is Thomas Simons. I’ll send over all the information I had on his last location. I don’t think you will find anything, but it’s more of a lead to pull on than you’ve got now. Besides, you guys have ways of moving about in the real world I don’t.” Niles nodded. That’s true enough. Being smart with the System was a lot different than kicking down doors in real life.
Kubrick stood up and walked to where he had poured a drink. Kubrick picked up something that looked like the Talon and threw it towards Niles. Niles caught it and nodded.
[Transmission: I accept this, but before we go any further with you, we’ll need to see if any of this information pans out. ]
Niles felt irritated. Grisham was being unnecessarily difficult, but they were too desperate to wrap this up. Niles had no intention of declining Kubrick’s offer of help. Niles cut the synch leaving the two of them free to work something out.
Chapter 20: A Deal Between
“Chief?” Niles looked up to Kubrick.
“I’m about to hook you up with one of my mods. It’s something fresh. An AI augment. Sort of like the iron giant you fought before. It was controlled by me. You could say it was an extension of myself, I’d like to make one for you. Think of it as a minion.”
“The profile of the woman Scar used to meet with you was modded to his real account using a dead profile. It was how he did most of his business, sort of like a way to have a VPN. The only problem though, is you’ll have a di
rect link, and if somebody is looking and knows what they’re doing, that connection can be exploited. Hope you understand.”
“No, not really,” Niles admitted, “But I got the gist of it. It’s a system with advantages and disadvantages.”
They walked outside of the house, and when Kubrick shut the door, the entire house disappeared. “Pocket fortress. I’ve got the blueprint stored. I don’t like to stay in one place too long, not even in the Underworld.” Kubrick walked over and touched the iron giant from before. Cogs began to whirl, and grinding sounds could be heard as it stood up.
“You can only control one at a time, and your minion has all the access you have,” Kubrick said. The iron giant pulled out a long rifle from within its own storage. The minion slapped an energy cartridge into the rifle and fired at a nearby tree with the laser until the gun was empty and the tree full of flaming holes.
“Just as you are limited in the system, your minion extension will be as well,” Kubrick said. Niles nodded.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I will do everything; all you will have to do is synch with it, and you’ll be able to control it just as I control my giant. Everything is managed with a thought.”
Niles nodded.”Can we do this later, though? We can right? I need to check out this information you passed me.”
“Before you go, I have a suspicion,” Kubrick said, putting a hand on Niles’ shoulder. “You need to hear it. I’ve had it for a while now, but I’ve doubted, and you should too. I know most of you guys are deeply passionate about your service to your country and—”
“Spit it out, Kubrick,” Niles said.
“I think the people you’re working with might be part of this. Not all of them of course, but somebody has been compromised.” Niles shook his head. He had thought about it too. But shook the thought away. No, not somebody with the facility.
“Just thought you should know,” Kubrick explained. Niles nodded and then turned around to go, and he climbed down the stairs and initiated logout.
*******
A little while later, Niles was looking at a printout of the information Kubrick had sent him in the analyst’s room. Information on the current target. A Thomas Simons, who per the report had worked as a masseuse before he was recruited by the Old Dominion. How does anyone go from being a masseuse to a gun for hire?
They all watched on a screen as their agent in the field, a Sergeant Flemming, knocked on the door. The place was quiet. “Don’t forget to do a scan,” one of the team leaders called into into his microphone. On-screen, the agent did as he was told and a quick wave of an electric wand showed the building was devoid of life.
Sergeant Flemming knocked again, this time stopping so the camera on the doorway could see his face. He cursed and used his implant to bypass the security system, it didn’t work. Niles watched Flemming switch over to his implant to begin the override process to get in the house. He must have been making good money working for Old Dominion to be able to afford a place like this.
“Thomas?” The agent called out again, “We need to talk.” Flemming walked to the back of the house, looking in through the windows as he moved.
Behind the house, there was a smaller place, a workshop, probably. He walked towards it. It was locked with a simple lock. He could shoot the lock apart, but that would cause a huge bang. He sighed and did it anyway. He pushed the door in and recoiled. “I’ve got a bad smell here, guys.”
Flemming jumped when he saw the body. It was hard to tell how long the body had been there, maybe a few days, maybe a week.
“Jesus, what happened to him?” Niles muttered, looking at the screen.
Most of the skin on the body was gone, and the teeth were missing.. Flemming turned on a light, and they could all see it wasn’t a workshop but rather a gaming room. It was impeccable, fully furnished. The body lay on its side as if it had been unceremoniously tossed away. There were signs that a Rig had been there recently but had been removed.
“Hold the camera and pan around,” Niles shouted through the mic and looked at the body for a moment. The agent walked around the body until he saw the small canary tattoo on one side of his cheek. “I’ve Thomas here. We’ve got a positive ID on the tattoo. He’s dead.”
Everyone in the room groaned. “Looks like he was killed holding something in his hands, but whatever it was, it’s gone too,” Flemming said.
“Flemming,” called out the head analyst, “This is a dead-end, search the rest of the house and see if you find anything, but be careful in case of traps.”
“They emptied him,” the agent muttered. “Try the implant,” Niles said through the mic. The agent moved the dead man’s sideways. “There it is. Take it.” On the bottom of the man’s exposed skull was a tiny port, barely noticeable, but Niles knew to look. With his partially synthetic body he had one too.
“What is it?” The agent asked as he pulled out a blackish rectangle still sticky with brain matter.
“A memory seed.” Grisham commented, giving Niles a nod of approval. “Good catch. This is the first real lead we’ve had. Get some rest, I’ll send over the data when it arrives so you can go over it. That goes for all of you. Get back here Flemming, ASAP.”
Chapter 21: A Dead End
The knock on the door came too early, though Niles wasn’t surprised. He quickly got out of bed and put his boots back on. “The door’s open,” He called out as he walked over.
“We’ve hit a snag,” called out the Colonel as he walked in and looked around. “Flemming brought back the memory seed, but we can’t access the data within it through our usual systems and it’s too corrupted for you to attempt getting in with the Talon.”
“Wait, what?” Niles asked. “I can get into a memory seed with the Talon?”
Colonel Grisham shifted his posture seeming annoyed. “Yes, but not this memory seed. It’s been fried, probably by whoever took out the hit. I’ve already reached out to your new friend. He’s waiting for you in the café. Put a little pressure on him. We need leads.”
That’s not really how any of this works Grisham, but I’ll meet up with Kubrick and see what I can do. Niles nodded. “Alright, I’ll get to it.”
“Keep me updated,” Grisham called out as he turned and walked through the door.
Niles just shook his head. Not like I’ve got a choice. I’m sure you’re going to ping me every five minutes asking for a sitrep.
Once he was alone, Niles went ahead and stripped down and got into the immersion, and began the process of logging back in. He laid down and waited for the gel to cover him. He closed his eyes and counted backward from ten. When Niles opened his eyes again, he saw his preferences had been saved.
SynaCAID Platform
Currently Transferring to Seven Cities Online
Location: Arcadia - New Player Spawning Zone – The Cafe
“Welcome back Marx, it’s been a while.” The NPC server from before was standing beside him with a big smile on her face. The smell of coffee was heavy in the air. Hazelnut. They really went overboard with a lot of this. Still, though, it’s nice. “
He turned to her and saw the NPC was holding out a fresh cup of coffee. Niles nodded and accepted it. “Thanks, it’s good to be back. That’s it for now, though, thank you. I’m going to sit down and wait for a friend.”
“Alright, no problem,” The NPC responded. “We’re always glad to have you here.”
Niles sat down towards the back of the room and looked out towards the door. He tried to keep a low profile and looked around to make sure nobody was paying more attention than they should. It wasn’t long until he saw Kubrick coming.
The man was wearing something a little more subdued this time. A grey jogger, sunglasses, and a ball cap. He probably saw somebody dress like that in a movie. This is exactly what somebody would wear if they were picking up tips from an old thriller.
“I was expecting you sooner,” Kubrick whispered as he sat down in a chair at the table and looked at Niles.
“Did you get the memory seed? Our mutual friend said you needed to meet with me.”
“We didn’t get the memory seed. It was fried.” Niles whispered as the NPC Server came close and offered Kubrick a drink. Kubrick frowned when the girl came near him. He shook his head at her and waved away a coffee. “I owe a fee for a micro transaction I had reversed. The NPC’s like to remind me about it, even when offering a coffee.”
“Do you have any other leads, or was that the only one?” Niles asked. He couldn’t believe he had seen the man some hours ago. Kubrick looked different, out of place, and uncomfortable in the Cafe. The Cafe was a very well-groomed place. The tables and chairs were soft and comfortable with homely colors that didn’t distract. There was something like holiday music playing somewhere. Niles couldn’t tell. The two girls at the counter were absolutely gorgeous, and there was an antique ping-pong table at the far left. But yet, Kubrick appeared like he was uncomfortable. He’s not used to this. Outside of Underworld, he has to play by the same rules as the rest of them..