“Then why is he wanted and accused of helping the Federation?” Serge asked.
“That’s a good question, one we’ll figure out once we have a friendly chat with him. Matsuoka.” Miyuki leaped up startled when Yanmei called her name. “Remember what I told you about staying sharp?” Miyuki faced her, nodding, canceling the zoom at the same time. Now she could see Yanmei’s face.
“You’re gonna hit that facility, aren’t you?” Serge asked.
“If Yoshida’s developing the same weapon Zhang was? Then yes, we need to know and report back,” Yanmei said. “And if Partington was bluffing, then we might encounter him there. Be prepared to capture him, this is our chance to learn of Nobuo’s mission, get Zhang’s data back, and prevent Yoshida from profiting on the weapon they were developing. And let’s not forget about the Regal Genetics pods aboard this ship, and those skull tattooed gangsters that came with it. Anchorage is where our answers lay.”
And doing so will give Miyuki the answers she sought about her big brother Nobuo. The gift he left home to give her, and the identity of the person who killed him.
Two birds with one stone. She was on board with the plan.
Twenty-Five
Estrella
“This better be safe…”
Estrella sat on Ray’s computer chair, cross-legged, staring away from its seven screens toward the single window in his apartment, as clear lines of water obscured the view of the densely packed neon skyline. Ray stood beside her, working the keyboard and mouse, and bringing up files his mysterious contact sent him.
“Okay, you’re good to go.”
She jacked into his computer. Estrella’s eyesight became Ray’s desktop, her thoughts almost one with the files he gave her access to download. She opened the first file, using her digitized thoughts to bring it closer to her vision. It looked like a passport with Ray’s face only he had a beard and mustache.
Geoffrey, could this work?
It can Estrella, these are nano printer patterns. With paper and plastic, we can nano print this passport.
And it will pass?
Yes, I see nothing that indicates it is a fake.
Estrella brought up two more files from the package, fake passports for Theo and Bashiir. She paused, listening to the intensity of the rain pick up. She wasn’t looking forward to riding her bike in it.
Estrella copied the files while asking Ray to fetch the materials necessary. She jacked out. He returned from his closet carrying a bunch of old documents, ID cards, including his old passport. Her optical scans showed that enough material was present. Holding her right NC gauntlet-covered hand above the stack Ray left, Estrella sprayed one swam of nanites onto them and selected the three passports from her nano printer’s menu.
Geoffrey issued the requested command to the nanite swarm as it worked quickly, deconstructing the old IDs and documents, and merging them into three blobs of gray goo that took the shape of passports before rendering into them. The surviving nanites returned to her NC gauntlet like a backward moving spray.
Ray picked up his passport and brought it to his face. He looked impressed.
“That mysterious hacker friend of yours knows their shit,” Estrella said, watching the remaining fake passports for Theo and Bashiir.
“I thought it was a joke when Obsidian sent these patterns,” Ray said, his eyes still fixed to the fake passport. “This looks like the real deal, though. The flight shouldn’t be an issue with them.”
She stood and stretched while listening to the intensity of the rain and the random police sirens outside. “Are you sure about this, Ray?”
“I just need a fake beard to match the picture and I’m good. Facial scans should still crash when they look at me.”
“And that’s what I’m worried about,” she said. “Theo and Bashiir’s facial profiles will at least load and deliver something believable. But you?”
“My contact insists I go,” he said. “After what we’ve discovered so far, I think we can trust them.”
“Or it could be a setup, butter you up with this then lead you out of the city.”
She watched Ray pocket his fake passport and grab the two meant for Theo and Bashiir. In his living room stood Theo and Bashiir next to the couch Ellsworth lay on. Ray handed them their fake passports and nodded to the warlock and lion shifter.
“That’s why these two are coming along,” he said.
Estrella crossed her arms across the black lace crop top she wore. “Didn’t Obsidian say you should bring Bashiir and Theo?”
Everyone winced at her words, the reality that Obsidian knew everything about them. A soft crackle of thunder roared amidst the sounds of new police sirens. Ray’s neighborhood was worse than hers.
“You could come along too, Estrella,” Ray said to her.
“I’m chained to this city remember?” Estrella said. “Us RWs can’t leave unless we got a corporate permission slip. Besides, after what happened at M’s place, she wants answers and wants them now. Guess who has to find ‘em?” She looked at those present in Ray’s apartment. Theo, Bashiir, a sleeping Ellsworth, and Ray. Someone was missing. “What about Piper? Her mind control might come in handy, especially to get on the flight if those passports don’t work.”
“Haven’t seen her in weeks,” Ray said.
“Likewise,” Theo added.
“I tried calling her last night and didn’t hear back…” Estrella said. “She didn’t reply to my text messages either.”
“She might be dead,” Theo snorted.
“Dude—”
“Chill, malaka,” Theo said, cutting Ray off, holding his hands out. “Piper’s more likely to outlive us all. Seriously though, someone should check up on her. She’s the team leader, and the only one that gets orders from our messengers.”
“And we haven’t been assigned anything new in nearly a month,” Bashiir said.
More down in the dumps glares from Theo and Bashiir. She couldn’t blame them. They came to the Alliance with Piper, at the request of Nexus, to stop Nobuo’s black ops IW operation, and when that was completed everything went silent. No messengers with no orders, and now no sign of Piper for the past month, leaving them stuck in Los Angeles.
“Want me to grab her for you guys?” Estrella offered.
Ray pulled out his phone and checked the time, the light from the phone’s screen brightened his face. “Honestly, we should head out now before we miss the flight.” The phone slid back in his pocket. “Besides, she’ll need a doctored passport.”
“That’s true, I didn’t find any patterns for her,” Estrella said. “Just patterns for the three passports you guys have.”
“And Obsidian talks to me when it’s convenient for them,” Ray said. “Doubt I could reach them now, and ask for another, so…”
“So, get moving then,” Estrella said. “Oh, and here, take these.” She pulled a spare nanotube from her arm and handed it to him.
He held and examined the tube. “Nanites? What am I going to do with that?”
“The ones in that tube received a First Aid request,” she said. “Just stick it in you and they’ll automatically move to complete the order.” He shuddered. “In case you get shot, or something. Keep the katana too.” She glanced at the blade, it remained leaning against the wall where she left it. Estrella forgot to take it home after her last visit.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come down to me using it.”
“What? The katana or the nanites?”
He grimaced, one hand still holding the tube. “Both.”
She walked to the front door. A crackle of thunder roared, this one louder than the last. “I’ll find Piper.”
“Oh, and,” Ray called out. She faced him as he made a gesture to Ellsworth sleeping on the couch, “make sure you keep him fed.”
Ellsworth waved a hand. He wasn’t asleep. “Don’t worry guys, I’ll be right here… staying protected.”
“Estrella will watch over you…” Ray said then
paused with twisted lips. “And maybe Piper, if she’s still alive.”
She’d lost count of how many times someone suggested the pixie kiwi was dead. Estrella slid her feet into her black heeled boots and left. Her left arm split open, covering her body in goo that used to be her biker suit and helmet during the elevator ride to the lobby.
Thunder and lightning growled. It’s raging rumbles echoed in the drenched IW district for five seconds as Estrella’s red bike kicked up waves of water behind it on the streets. Piper’s apartment wasn’t far, just two or three blocks away, sitting in the middle of buildings flashing Japanese neon signs. She parked to the side and entered while her biker suit and helmet melted off her body, dripped into her arm, and transformed Estrella from a red biker girl to a witch, dressed in a black skirt and crop top, fading from sight as the elevator doors slid shut.
Dozens of stories up and Estrella stood at Piper’s front door. At least she hoped it was. The directory file she read on her HUD, however, said this was the place. She knocked on the door using her right hand, the NC gauntlet clanged with each knock. Nothing happened. She knocked again, and then placed her ear to the door. She heard muffled thumps. Glass shattered a second after. She pulled away.
Geoffrey, did glass sounds come from her place?
Indeed, there is someone present in Piper’s suite.
An unwanted guest paid Piper a visit. Using her left synthetic hand, she turned the doorknob, but its lock prevented it from rotating further. So, she got a hard grip on it, crushed it like a beer can, and turned it with all her strength. The mechanical joints in her hand whirred as components within the knob compressed from her grip. The doorknob broke. There was no time to plan something better. Estrella was panicking now.
She pushed on the door, entering Piper’s apartment with the crushed doorknob still in her cyborg grip. She threw that on the floor and charged in, reaching for her pistol.
Was that necessary? We could have disabled the locks, or perhaps melted the door.
Got no fucking time for that!
She ran past the old milk crates used as storage bins, and clothes hanging to dry near the window with her Asagiri40 drawn looking to put a bullet through the head of the creep that broke in. She found nobody at first. Piper’s place wasn’t huge. The living room and kitchen were combined, and the smell of old cigarettes and ramen noodles lingered in the air.
She kicked the bedroom door off the hinges with her heeled boot. She bolted in. There were two targets, smiling up at Estrella from the bed, and one of them had the Mona Lisa smile she loved. The other face, a woman she didn’t recognize, glanced at Estrella, and if she were to guess that face was buried between Piper’s legs just seconds earlier.
Estrella ran a facial scan of her.
Name: Tiera-Lynn Aleksandrova
Age: 23
Species: Human
Occupation: Escort
Notes: $20,000 in debt with student loans
Piper and Tiera-Lynn rose with a grinning face, their naked bodies moved with tipsy impairment, while bare breasts with erect nipples faced Estrella.
“Wait… what?” Piper said, still holding the smile at Estrella.
Estrella lowered her pistol, wincing. “That’s my line.”
“Did you…” Tiera-Lynn pointed a swaying finger at Estrella. She ended up pointing at the ruined door she stood beside. “Did you… invite her, too?”
“No.” Piper grimaced, gave Tiera-Lynn a kiss, and stood. She leaned over, reached for a stack of Alliance dollar bills, and handed a fist full of them to Tiera-Lynn. “Listen, gonna have to cut this short.”
They were getting dressed now, searching for undergarments on the floor. Their panties went up over their hairless pussy first once found. The bras strapped on second, then the clothes, a miniskirt and translucent top for Tiera-Lynn. She left walking past Estrella, and felt a single finger stroke her synthetic arm.
“Oh,” Tiera-Lynn said, looking back at Piper. “She the RW you talked about?”
“Uh yeah.”
Piper put a tank top on, and not much else. She frowned at her pants tossed across the room like it was too much of a journey to get up and reach for it. Tiera-Lynn limped out of Piper’s suite and into the halls as its light shined upon the interior of the dark apartment.
Estrella stored her pistol among the goo in her arm. “About what?”
“Nothing,” the pixie kiwi said.
Piper attempted to grab her pants. Her legs wobbled after three steps, and she fell. Estrella prevented it from being a complete faceplant wipeout, she purred as Estrella held her. Piper struggled to find the zipper of her pants after she put them on. She gave up, leaned against the wall back first, then sat.
And then sat up.
“Excuse me,” Piper said, leaving her bedroom. “Didn’t hear her shut the door.”
Estrella snorted. “Yeah, that’s because…”
She joined Piper staring at the front entrance, wide open, and unable to shut, as it had no doorknob.
Piper’s wobbling hand found the mangled metal that used to be the knob, her other hand clenched the seam of her pants to keep them up. She brought the knob’s remains to her emerald eyes glowing.
“You fucking broke it…”
“I heard a noise and glass breaking and haven’t heard from you in ages. Thought someone came after you.”
“You fucking broke my door.”
“I’ll fix it.”
“Fuck it, don’t worry about it.” Piper threw the knob, shutting the door the best she could. The suite darkened. “What did you come here for, Estrella?”
“I just told you.”
An eyebrow rose only to be obscured by black pixie bangs dyed red. “You did?”
“Was worried about you?”
“Oh! I was on your mind? That’s so sweet!” Piper moved back to her bedroom, out of sight. Estrella heard a crunch. “Ah fuck!”
Estrella joined Piper in her room to see her hop on one leg, keeping her left foot up and off the floor as ribbons of red gushed from the sole of her foot. Looking down, Estrella saw the cause of it, and the crunching noise: broken glass. To the side, she saw the table it fell from which was covered in empty booze bottles. Between Ray and Piper, Estrella didn’t know who was handling their new life the best.
“This what you’ve been doing?” Estrella pointed at the empty alcohol bottles.
“Naw, not all the time.” Piper sat the foot of her bed, legs crossed so that she could examine and pull out the shards of glass stuck in it. Piper gestured to the white lines of a powdery substance beside the bottles. A small razor and two straws lay next to it. “Help yourself, love. I got plenty for everyone.”
Estrella scanned the substance, and the results appeared over her eyesight. It had a chemical composition of C17H21NO4.
“Jesus Christ, Piper,” she said, looking at her. “Didn’t take you for someone that loves the coca.”
Piper grabbed her NC gauntlet that was lying on the nightstand. Once her right hand was wrapped in it, she sprayed half a nanite swarm over her foot. The blood retracted back inside, and the wound closed shut like it was never there.
Piper gave her foot a twist, grinning. “Much better!”
“Booze, drugs…” Estrella looked at the bedsheet damp with sexual fluids. “… and call girls.”
“I prefer the term, a sweet-tart that admires the female body,” Piper said, both hands resting beside her on the bed. “Oh, and she produces sexy memory spheres with her clients.”
Estrella facepalmed, using her gauntlet hand. “This is so fucked. You’re still wanted!”
“Oh, simmer down; she’s one of the unregistered IWs that has a new life in the city, with a facial scan profile that looks super legit thanks to Ray.”
“Still, what if she sells the sphere?”
Piper pointed at a milk crate in the corner, Estrella kneeled, examining its contents. It was full of memory spheres. “I bought them for myself,” Piper said.
“This was a private service. And remember, I’m a telepath, I could use the spheres myself.”
Estrella now understood why nobody could reach Piper for the past month. She sighed, tossing the memory sphere she picked up back into the milk crate.
Facing Piper again, she asked. “I’m assuming you didn’t get my message last night then?”
“Was busy eating pussy, so no.” Estrella rolled her eyes. Piper grimaced. “What was that eye roll for?”
“You’re high, abandoned us, while you locked yourself in here.”
“Look, I,” Piper’s gaze turned to the floor, “just needed to take off some stress.”
“For a whole month?”
“Been through a lot. Lost my home, and car… twice.”
“Twice?”
“Yes, when you count what I left behind in the Federation.” Sorrow laced Piper’s voice. “And… I lost you, Estrella.”
“Since when was I yours?”
“Apparently, never.” Piper exhaled, her face still facing the floor. Her NC gauntlet hand brushed dangling red-dyed bangs back.
“If you didn’t go AWOL, we could have hung out more.”
Piper turned away from the floor. Their eyes met. “Really?”
The chat’s topic changed when Piper asked what happened. Estrella brought her up to speed, telling her the story that Ray’s mysterious net contact, Obsidian, sent him on a scavenger hunt around the city, discovering the Bald Skulls, their interest in an employee of Regal Genetics, and that Yoshida had their eyes on Regal Genetics, after it folded on its cloning project. The chat ended with the reveal that Ray, Theo, and Bashiir were traveling to Anchorage.
“Theo and Bashiir complained about lack of new directions from those messengers you talked about,” Estrella added. “They said you’re the one the messengers approach.”
“I am, but I haven’t heard from them,” Piper said. “Which was the other reason I’ve been silent, there’s nothing new to report. I can’t get a hold of them.
Specter Protocol Page 21