Specter Protocol

by Eddie R. Hicks

  He waved her in past the desk and into a small office. The workers had plastered the walls of the office from end to end with posters of pinup girls wearing transparent micro bikinis, carrying different firearms, all while holding various erotic poses. In the center, if you looked closely at the stacks of documents and tablet pads burying it, was a laptop.

  “Here you go, knock yourself out,” he said opening the laptop and pushing it across the desk to her. “If you need to view the security cams, then just—”

  “I got it, thank you.”

  He left her alone in the office with the glow of the setting sun beaming through its three windows. She turned the device to its side locating its network port and jacked in. Estrella’s world became the laptop, her thoughts making the mouse move on its own.

  Geoffrey, pull everything you can get on the Kobayashi and anything else that seems suspect.

  Understood.

  Numbers, computer code, screenshots of surveillance footage, and file names rained across her vision, a fast-moving montage of data being absorbed by her holographic AI cat.

  “Hey, Vick,” said a voice from the reception room behind.

  “What?” It was the voice of the man who escorted her into the office.

  “Buddy’s here again.”

  “What the fuck? Why? I don’t fucking got time for this shit.”

  Fascinating, Geoffrey spoke.

  Whatcha got for me?

  As the data transfer continued, a small screenshot from one of the surveillance cameras in the port appeared in the center of her vision. It was a cargo freighter with its powerful engines fixed to send it on a high-speed voyage across the ocean.

  Geoffrey went on. This freighter was prepared and ready to leave when this truck arrived with freight to be delivered to it. The screenshot changed to a second camera, this one looking down at a truck that appeared in the loading area. There was a verbal confrontation after the driver demanded the loading dock crew to place another cargo container aboard the ship.

  Let’s see it.

  The still screenshots moved with life. A truck showed up at the port and its driver pointed at what she assumed was the cargo freighter in the distance ready to depart. Dockworkers had their exchange of words with the driver and then conceded defeat. A mech pulled one large shipping container off the truck’s loading bed and handed it off to the massive crane that placed the last-minute container aboard the freighter.

  Rewind by three seconds. The playback moved backward in time as per Estrella’s instructions. Hold. The world froze. Estrella looked at the container high in the air and in the hands of the loading crane. Overlays appeared on her HUD, projecting the estimated size and height of the container. That’s a pretty big box. How many people could you stuff inside it?

  Approximately twenty to twenty-two, Geoffrey revealed. Half that number if the equipment were to be stored in it. It is also equipped with climate control systems, often used for shipping perishable goods.

  Or smuggling bodies across the big pond. Estrella gazed longer at the still image. Give me everything you can about the truck, plates, where it arrived from. The works.

  I will do my best giving the limited footage available from surveillance—

  “Heads up, Estrella,” Piper’s voice said. Estrella was confused at first, not knowing where her voice came from, and her vision being the laptop’s screen didn’t help. Then she remembered the communication channel they had; Piper was talking to her from there.

  Estrella spoke into it. “What is it?”

  She heard a kiwi chuckle. “Your favorite arseholes are about to arrive.”

  “Peters?”

  “No, worse than that, the Bald Skulls.”

  “Oh fuck…”

  “They just showed up and went to the building you’re in. If it wasn’t for Akane, I would have missed him.”

  “Where are you now?”

  Piper sent the data by placing a flashing marker on Estrella’s mini-map, now floating before the laptop’s screen in her vision. Piper was a kilometer and a half away according to that.

  “Why?!”

  “You told me to scout the area…” Piper said, the sound of her feet running echoed in the background. “Moving as fast as I can!”

  Estrella jacked out; she could see the office again. Her synthetic arm split open delivering her Asagiri40 pistol.

  Please tell me you got something to work with.

  I downloaded what I could, however, there may be a few video logs I missed.

  We’ll have to make do with it.

  She hid behind a filing cabinet, adrenaline pumping. “Move faster, Piper!”

  “Don’t do anything stupid, there’s more.”

  Show me what’s going on outside.

  Geoffrey’s holographic form rendered beside her, a black cat that ran and leaped up to the window, scanning and relaying data back to Estrella’s mini-map and HUD. Red outlined figures appeared on the walls, they were the Bald Skull member’s location outside, they were armed and spreading out.

  Six hostile targets, all warlocks except for one. Geoffrey peered closer at the window, feline eyes squinting. Hmm, interesting.

  What?

  Geoffrey relayed the image of a Latino man, bald with his head covered in skull tattoos, his hands glowing white, like all telepaths when they used their powers. His face was looking very familiar.

  Did we not dispatch this individual?

  Yeah, we did, at Lady M’s party. The man was Hawk. Estrella thought about his final moments, and the last words he muttered before she finished him.

  Vuelvo enseguida. I’ll be right back.

  He came back.

  “Sup buddy,” said Vick from the front desk. “Wasn’t expecting you back, so soon.”

  Peeking from her cover, holding her weapon steady, Estrella looked to the man Vick was speaking with. Of course, he had a bald head, trench coat with no shirt on exposing his chest decorated with a skull and crossbones tattoos.

  With one hand, the Bald Skull gangster drew his pistol aiming it at Vick’s face. Fear sent the rest of the dockworkers in a scrambling panic.

  “Where the fuck is she?” the gangster asked.

  Vick was shaking. “Who?”

  The pistol’s barrel was touching his forehead now, and if Vick hadn’t been standing in front of the Bald Skull member Estrella might have been able to drop him.

  “Oh, fuck man,” Vick panicked more.

  “That real witch puta you fuckin’ let in here,” said the gangster. “Where da fuck is she, yo?”

  “She’s, she’s in the back!” Vick pointed to the office.

  The Bald Skull gangster looked. Estrella withdrew her peeking face back behind cover. Did he see her? She hoped not, and double-checked her pistol’s ammo counter, good to go, then viewed her nanite stores.

  Nanite swarm(s) remaining: 6

  That was also good. She was glad she injected beforehand, even though it produced a larger than normal battery drain.

  “And the other?” she heard the gangster ask.

  “What other?”

  “There were two witches, man!”

  “Another witch? I don’t know about a second!”

  “You’re a fucking liar!”

  “It’s true!”

  The other witch must have been Piper. Estrella considered her options as she faced the four sides of the small office. Turn the laptop into spiderbots? Or burn his body and his friends with Incinerate? Gun blazing was tempting, especially with the handgun she held and its ability to shoot through walls. Then she remembered the civilians and knowing her luck Geoffrey would limit her actions in the name of preserving human life considering her pistol ignored most forms of cover. And there was no time to nano print a standard pistol. Estrella needed to act fast and now; the Bald Skulls were not ones to care for human survival.

  Piper needed to hurry the fuck up—

  Gunfire echoed. It came from outside.

  The red outline
d figures in her vision sprang into action, diving for protection behind cargo containers and raising their weapons. They shot at a target Estrella assumed was Piper considering her location on the mini-map had neared.

  Everyone’s attention turned to the windows, even the Bald Skull members in the reception area. It gave Estrella the chance to peek out and watch, two of the gangsters stopped ahead of the office’s door, joining the others as they viewed the fighting out the window.

  “Piper?” Estrella whispered to her over the comm.

  “Can’t talk! Dodging bullets and wolves!”

  Estrella made a face. “The fuck? Wolves?”

  The gunfire crackling didn’t stop, keeping everyone’s focus on the window. It was the perfect distraction. Estrella took aim, lined up the nearest Bald Skull gangster in her sights, and pulled the trigger. Red juices showered the walls. She switched targets and repeated. Brains and gore dripped down the wall as the body it came from spiraled backward. Fear for what could come next kept the human witnesses silent.

  She returned to the laptop, waving her NC gauntleted hand above it as she selected Summon Spiderbot from her menu. The spray of nanites from it coated the laptop, turned it into goo, and then twisted it to a spiderbot roughly the same size. With three utility nanites in her body left, the bot followed her outside as she fled the office, weapon drawn, optical scanner searching for the assholes that’d put Piper’s life in danger.

  There’s was nothing to shoot at. She kept running anyway, the spiderbot following behind like a pet, bootheels clicking past Bald Skull gangsters with their heads and chests torn to shreds. It looked like a wild animal got a piece of their asses.

  Echoing gunfire, Estrella followed the source. Hawk stood alone, shooting at something, and it wasn’t Piper, she was off in the distance, covering behind cargo containers. Estrella sent a command to the spiderbot, kill Hawk while they distracted him. By the time the bot arrived in an effective weapon’s range a pack of wolves had leapt down from a cargo container and savagely mauled him. They left Hawk face down in a puddle of warlock blood. The spiderbot had nobody to slaughter and stood down. It looked so sad.

  Six wolves left Hawk’s body, the fur around their mouths covered in blood as they growled, displaying their crimson fangs at Piper, Piper who was too busy exchanging weapons fire with another gangster further in. The wolves went for her. Estrella took aim and ordered the spiderbot to do the same. The last Bald Skull member’s body burst in flames, Piper’s nanites did it. The wolves stopped in the tracks, their teeth no longer visible while their hunter’s eyes faced the dancing flaming gangster as he fell to the ground and curled to a fetal position.

  New paws splashed through puddles. Estrella spun, her pistol pointed forward, and her spiderbot waited for new orders. She was surrounded now as was Piper, an encircling of growling wolves preventing the two witches from pushing forward. Estrella felt Piper’s back against hers, and she imagined her weapon was aimed at half of the wolf pack circle she couldn’t see.

  There were no shots fired, and no mauling occurred. It was just a long stare down. Estrella scanned and zoomed in on one wolf. It had military dog tags reflecting the setting sun dangling from its neck. Another wolf, which she guessed was the alpha of the pack, had gold chains jingling with every move or growl it made.

  “Lower your weapon,” Piper asked her.

  So, Estrella did. The wolves backed off and vanished into the maze of cargo containers littering the port’s lot, chains and dog tags clinking as their paws splashed through the puddles.

  “I hope that’s a good sign,” Estrella said.

  “It is,” Piper said as she approached Hawk’s dead body missing the flesh on his face. Piper lowered herself, looking down at the kill. “They came in, killed, and left.”

  Estrella stood with her, the spiderbot followed behind, so did Geoffrey’s cat hologram. She liked the look. “Those weren’t real wolves, were they?”

  Piper shook her head. “No, they were biokinetic IWs.”

  Estrella kicked his torso. His carcass flung eight feet back like a rag doll and hit a cargo container with a clang. “¿Cuándo vas a regresar?!”

  “Eh, come again?” Piper said drily.

  She pointed at Hawk’s rigid from. “That’s the third time he’s died this week.”

  She lowered her pointing finger. Estrella spotted a glistening object swimming in one puddle. She stood above it, kneeled, and scooped it up with her left hand, bringing it to her face. It was a gold chain, one that looked the same as the ones the wolves had. The flag of Jamaica dangled in its center, a country that used to exist back before it joined the Alliance.

  She held the chain longer, wincing at it.

  Who are they? Estrella thought.

  She had a feeling the answer to that lay with the LAPD. She asked Geoffrey for the quickest route.

  Twenty-Eight

  Ray

  Ray kicked snow off his boots before he crossed into the motel suite. His body embraced the heated unit. He was in Anchorage now, 318 kilometers from the Arctic Circle, during the month of February. It was cold as fuck, despite rising temperatures worldwide.

  Bashiir and Theo claimed beds for themselves, meaning Ray had to sleep on the third bed that remained for him. He sat at the edge. The muscles in his legs were still sore from the run in the sewers the other day. He took his glasses off; the battery needed a recharge. Ray’s world shifted again. This time he was in the normal one, without floating labels, and unable to see which networked devices were hackable. It felt strange.

  Theo went for the TV remote. The TV was a small flat screen resting on a low four-legged TV stand, and below it was an old fashion Blu-ray player, the motel must have been old to have one of those. After an hour of watching the local stations and warming up, Theo left. Bashiir stood looking out the window, letting in the blue neon glow of the motel’s sign written in English and Japanese.

  Ray reached for his backpack, pulling out his laptop. A confirmation message informed him the drone he deployed on their way to the motel, after leaving the airport, was still operational. Using the laptop’s keyboard and mouse, he could control the drone while watching its camera feed him a bird’s-eye view of the multilayered city buried in snow and ice. It was like playing a videogame.

  Theo returned, and the opened front door tickled Ray’s face with cold. In his hands was a six-pack case of beer. Theo tossed one at Ray. He caught it with both hands. He offered one to Bashiir, but he held his palms up, shaking his head.

  “No thank you,” Bashiir said to Theo.

  Theo looked puzzled. “Bro, why?”

  “I am Muslim,” Bashiir said.

  “Oh. Okay, fair point.” Theo opened his can and drank, Ray did too, and then waved for the two to come over.

  Theo and Bashiir surrounded Ray at the edge of the bed he sat at. He directed their attention to his laptop’s screen.

  “If I’m correct, this should be the place,” Ray pointed, showing them what the drone saw. “This is Yoshida’s Elmendorf installation, formerly known as Elmendorf Air Force Base, north of the city. They built the base back when this place was part of the old United States. Yoshida bought the base after the Alliance military started cutting back on its military, and used it for weapons research and development, and a place to launch their private military if they had a contract to fulfill in the area.”

  “Nice,” Theo said and sipped his beer. “Where’d you get this footage, malaka?”

  “Oh, this is live,” Ray said.

  Theo squinted. “From what?”

  “Remember that drone I used to break into the server farm?”

  “You brought that?”

  Ray nodded. “Slipped it out of my bag after we left the airport, guess you didn’t see.”

  “Was kinda worried about my balls freezing,” Theo said. “I’m still dressed for LA weather, you know? What else did you bring?”

  Ray grinned and reached for his suitcase. He pulled out a nani
te katana, buried under his clothing, and resting beside a few small arms, all legal to pack in your luggage these days, provided it wasn’t a carryon. Theo and Bashiir gave him approving looks.

  “Estrella lent this one to me,” Ray said holding the katana. “She kept it after our battle with Nobuo. It might come in handy if bullets and your powers aren’t an option.”

  They continued watching the drone as it flew above the snow-covered airfield. Fighters, dropships, and transport shuttles marked with the Yoshida Corporation logo idled as overhung lights shined down. Ray noticed movement along the base’s perimeter. He positioned the drone above and hit the max zoom option.

  Soldiers wearing Tactical Exoskeleton Killer suits, better to be known as TEK suits, marched while holding rifles. The armor covered their whole body, from head to feet with so much protection and technology that you’d think they were seven-foot-tall robots. The jetpack mounted to their back and boots didn’t help the image.

  Theo whistled at the discovery, leaning closer, beer can still in hand. “TEK suits, these guys ain’t fucking around.”

  “Meaning whatever’s inside is a big deal,” Ray said. “TEK suits are used for overseas operations or fighting a major war. Projecting a local PMC base? That’s overkill.”

  “It is safe to assume this is the right place then,” Bashiir said. “Whatever Yoshida is building, must be here.”

  Two targets walked into the drone’s camera view, neither of them wore a TEK suit. Ray zoomed in. He pointed at the NC gauntlets the two men wore.

  “Looks like real warlock support,” Ray said. “Yeah, these guys are worried about IWs breaking in too if they brought them.”

  “This ain’t looking easy,” Theo said.

  Ray took control of the drone again, making another pass at the base, highlighting every patrol, fighter craft, and security watchtower in the darkness.

  “I only see two RWs outside,” Ray said after he completed the sweep.

  “Might be more inside,” Theo suggested. “Can you take a peek?”

  “Not until I get closer,” Ray said shaking his head. “I could have the drone try to jack in on our behalf but it’s the only one I got. If it gets taken out, we lose that advantage.”