Cabal of Lies

by Michael Anderle

  “I suppose,” Jia murmured. “I wish that tech would stop trying to kill us, though.” She rolled her head his way and grinned. “I know we poke our noses into things voluntarily, but I’m starting to take some of the Lady’s taunts personally.”

  “Yeah, she’s a bitch sometimes.” Erik laughed. “And it’d be nice to only have to worry about normal enemies. But hey, at least it wasn’t fake bikini-babe space raptors.”

  “No, it wasn’t those, for certain,” Jia replied. “I’m not sure I wouldn’t have preferred fake bikini-babe raptors.”

  “Nanozombie or Zitark?” Erik tossed out for fun. “They both want to eat you.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that,” she admitted. “Being eaten isn’t at the top of my list of ways to die.”

  They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes before Erik turned to look at her. “Would you prefer to be eaten by an alien or a zombie?”

  Jia stuck her hands behind her head and looked at the ceiling of the ship. “Do I have to be eaten?”

  “For purposes of the question, yeah.” Erik snickered. “It’s not fun otherwise. You could choose to have your neck broken or be stabbed by a Zitark.”

  Jia smirked. “How about I kill all the aliens or zombies before they eat me, break my neck, or stab me?”

  “That’s one way out of it. Probably the best way.” Erik sat up. “We need to be more careful going forward. This one was a little closer than I would have liked, but hey, we’re still breathing, and everything they sent to kill us isn’t.”

  “I know.” Jia sighed. “They really are out of control. I can’t even believe they thought up this kind of plan.”

  “When the obvious doesn’t work, try the not-so-obvious. Nothing worse than smart criminals.”

  “This goes well beyond criminals,” Jia suggested.

  “Detectives,” Emma interjected. “Warden Harris is attempting to call.”

  “Put him through,” Erik ordered. “I’m surprised he’s up so soon.”

  “Detective Blackwell? Detective Lin?” The warden’s voice sounded strained, not surprising, considering the injuries he had suffered.

  “Sorry you missed all the fun at the end, Warden,” Erik answered. “But glad you’re up so soon.”

  “That’s only because of you two. You also saved those two guards with me. We would have bled out for sure without your help.”

  “We were just doing our jobs,” Jia commented. “Protect and serve, even in space against nanozombies.”

  “That’s easy for you to say,” Warden Harris offered. “But I’ve got dead guards and prisoners to justify. We let contraband in here, not to mention a corrupt guard. If it hadn’t been for your quick actions, things would have even been worse, and the oversight failure was on my part. So, thank you for covering my ass.”

  Erik frowned. “I hate to do this to you, Warden, but I doubt you only had one bad guard. There’s no way one man pulled all that off by himself.”

  “I know. I have no idea how you managed to partially repair the system so quickly, but I’m not complaining. Based on what my people are telling me, it’s going to take weeks to fully restore everything, and we’ll be transferring most of the prisoners to other facilities because we’ll still need to check everything to make sure there are not hidden backdoors left inside the systems.” The warden audibly swallowed. “You’re right. I doubt one mid-ranking prison guard would have the capability of pulling all that off by himself. I’ll be doing my best to cooperate with the CID investigators when they arrive. We need to find Hadrian Conners. I don’t know what syndicate he works for, but based on what I heard, they had another of those things hidden in that transport, which means the guy went all-out to mess this place up. Thank God you sucked it out into space.”

  “Yeah,” Erik replied. “Somebody from the Fleet’s going to pick it up. They’re tracking the body now. You can check with them if you’re dying for more info.”

  “That’s…okay,” the warden replied. “I’m not all that interested in the fine details of the monsters.”

  “I haven’t heard any alerts,” Erik commented. “I take it there were no more nanozombies? The soldiers look pretty calm, but I wasn’t sure if you were just trying not to get everyone too worked up if new ones popped up.”

  “Nothing. None of the survivors who were bitten or scratched have any evidence of infection. The air quality is steady. There must have been something else. I recommended that they let you go immediately, but I’m no longer making that call, given the emergency, and the fact you called the Fleet in.”

  “Yeah, we were told we needed to stick around for a little bit.” Erik chuckled. “It’s not a big problem. We’re not in a hurry. We’re just glad they’re not sticking us all in quarantine.”

  “It’s surprising, is what it is.” Jia eyed the people moving past their ship. “It’s almost like they’ve dealt with this kind of thing before and knew what to look for.”

  Erik frowned. He hadn’t thought of that, but once she said it, it made perfect sense. There was no longer any such thing as “too paranoid” in their lives. Jia noticed him looking at her and shrugged in response to his unasked question.

  “I fully expect to be fired for what happened,” the warden admitted. “But I want to be clear. I don’t blame either of you for anything, and I’m grateful you two were here and risked your lives to save not only my staff but also the prisoners. Did you want to help investigate the other prison guards? I’m sure if I push, I can convince the CID.”

  Jia half-closed her eyes. “This is well outside our jurisdiction. I think we’ll leave that to them. I’m comfortable being the victim being assisted by other law enforcement.”

  “You’re hardly victims. You’re heroes.”

  Erik stared at her for a moment, the corners of his mouth twisting into a playful smile. “I agree with my partner. Sometimes you want to handle everything yourself, and sometimes you just want to take a long rest.”

  “I understand, Detectives,” the warden offered. “I need to handle a few things. If you need anything else while you’re here, just let me know, and I’ll do what I can.”

  He signed off.

  Erik and Jia sat in silence for a couple of minutes, reflecting on the events of the trip. Exhaustion weighed heavily on their faces, despite their satisfaction at handling the problem. It might have helped if they hadn’t made a half-day flight beforehand.

  “Make me a promise,” Jia whispered. “For the future?”

  Erik looked her way. “Promise you what? I can’t promise you no more surprises.”

  “No, I expect surprises. I just want no zombie simulations.”

  Erik laughed. “Even bikini zombies?”

  “Especially bikini zombies. They’re even worse than bikini space raptors.”

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  September 14, 2229, Neo Southern California Metroplex, Police Enforcement Zone 122 Station, Office of Captain Alexander Ragnar

  The captain didn’t look preoccupied or angry.

  That was a good start to the day.

  He’d been nothing but concerned during their immediate calls after the incident the week before, and when he’d called them in right after their return to work, neither was sure what it might mean. He’d had days of contact with only the briefest of comments. At this point, there wasn’t much to say.

  “I don’t get you.” The captain nodded to both detectives. “You two could have taken a few days off, you know. You didn’t have to come back immediately and start working a new case. You’ve had a busy couple of months.”

  “It’s good to be able to concentrate on normal work,” Erik offered, “after nearly getting eaten by nanozombies.”

  Captain Ragnar chuckled. “If that sentence came out of anyone else’s mouth, it’d sound ridiculous, but somehow it’s reasonable that you two keep ending up in situations like that.”

  “It’s not like we’re trying,” Jia half-argued. “It’s just how things work
out. And the last thing I wanted to do was sit around in my apartment and obsess over nanozombie prison riots.”

  “Good. If you’re not having trouble, then it’s as good a time as any to talk about this.” The captain offered them a warm smile. “I have to debrief you. The CID seems obsessed with handling this incident through channels, which is why they haven’t contacted you directly. I’ve fielded their requests to keep you from being bothered.”

  Erik rubbed the back of his neck. “Is this about the reports and the hacking? Look, Captain, I didn’t want to explain to the CID in detail about Emma. I’m sure somebody high up knows about her, but I can’t say that about every random agent between the field and the very top.”

  Captain Ragnar shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. I made it clear you were testing various experimental devices on behalf of other government agencies, and that seemed to satisfy them. Plus, I called some friends, and from what I understand, a couple of people already pulled strings on your behalf. The thing is, the CID doesn’t want to press you too hard. I’m sure they want you two to stay as far away from this as they can manage.”

  “Why?” Jia frowned. “You think there is a cover-up?”

  The captain barked a laugh, his beard shaking. “It’s nothing like that, for once. This is too high-profile to cover up, even if they’re massaging the details.” He shook his head. “No, it’s because it makes the CID look bad for the Esposito collar to begin with. They want to write it off as terrorism, but it’s obvious you two were direct assassination targets of someone using specialized and advanced resources. They’ve also found two other guards who were involved in sabotaging the prison and helping smuggle items inside.”

  Erik nodded. “That makes sense.”

  “Those were in addition to the guard who died during the incident, and a medic who was working with them. They’ve all testified about being approached and offered large sums of money to help with smuggling a few things. They don’t seem to be aware of what the overall plan was. Most of them were under the impression they were helping bring in drugs.”

  “I’d hope they didn’t understand what they were doing.” Jia’s nostrils flared. “After all, agreeing to let someone turn people into monsters and murder their fellow guards is far beyond smuggling in items to help someone escape. I’m still confused about how they turned the prisoners into those things.”

  “Based on their testimony and what the CID investigators uncovered, those nanites were injected into the prisoners,” Captain Ragnar explained.

  “The medic,” Erik concluded. “That’s why they needed him.”

  Captain Ragnar nodded. “Yes. He also falsified medical reports, but no one’s sure yet if any of the prisoners other than Esposito volunteered for the procedure. Most of the infected were men who had recently gotten physicals.”

  “But why did they change so suddenly?” Jia asked. “This all happened shortly after our arrival.”

  “They’re still investigating that. Apparently, one of the guards was told to activate a device at a certain time. The working theory is the nanites responded to some sort of signal. Esposito had only gotten the injection that day.”

  “That explains why he wasn’t as messed up as the others,” Erik commented.

  “None of them claim to know where the super-zombie came from, but two did admit they knew they were smuggling in something large the day before.” Captain Ragnar tapped his PNIU, and a still image of the super-zombie in space appeared. “This one wasn’t a prisoner. DNA match points to a low-level enforcer for a Martian syndicate. He was reported missing by his wife several weeks ago. No sign his family received any money. I don’t think he was a volunteer. The CID says he doesn’t fit the profile.”

  Jia tapped her lips, deep in thought. “I assume it’s too much to ask that the CID has been able to follow up on whatever payments were made to the prison staff?”

  “Sorry, Detective Lin. There was a lot of special care put into hiding the money trail,” Captain Ragnar replied. “All we know is, someone had a lot of money and a lot of skill in financial crime.”

  Erik folded his arms. “Not surprised. This was advanced biotech. If it’s not Talos, then it’s someone very much like them, and people like that know how to cover their trail. I wouldn’t be surprised if we can never follow the trail to the end, especially if they made sure to keep a lot of it flowing through off-Earth banks.”

  Captain Ragnar looked down at his desk, his brow tightening. “They also have no line on Hadrian Conners. The man with that name and with accounts linked to activity in recent weeks has been dead for several years.”

  “That’s…fitting.” Erik smirked.

  Jia gave him a confused look. “Why do you say that?”

  He looked at her. “Zombies and dead people kind of go together.”

  Captain Ragnar grunted. “If he were a real zombie, it’d make more sense. Amazingly, we’ve got no video footage of the man at the prison. It’s like he’s a—”

  “A ghost?” Jia raised an eyebrow.

  “Something like that. The only thing I can tell you two is that you need to be careful. Damned careful.” Captain Ragnar stared at the super-zombie image. “Sounds like someone really wants you two dead, and they’re willing to do pretty twisted stuff to get that done. Now we’ve got everybody from the military to the CID involved, and I’m sure the Intelligence Directorate is sniffing around, too. That gives you some cover, but only a little. If someone released those nanozombies in the middle of a city where they couldn’t be as easily contained, who knows how many people might be killed? If it was Talos, they might not pull this stunt again, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try something else just as nasty.”

  “Careful?” Erik chuckled. “We’re always careful, Captain. It’s the other guys who keep trying to make our lives difficult.”

  The holographic avatars of the members of the Core surrounded their meeting table.

  Some looked on with boredom, others irritation and fascination, as they reviewed a feed of the events on the prison station, ending with the advanced nano-modified prototype experiencing the painful joys of explosive decompression.

  Shoji threw his head back and laughed. “Now that’s creativity. You have to admire the Last Soldier and his allies. Most would have given in to despair when faced with such an opponent.

  Sophia glared at him. “You find this amusing?”

  “Yes. That was why I laughed.” Shoji gave a bemused look. “You don’t find it entertaining at all?”

  “I think this is a setback, and I don’t find setbacks entertaining…ever.”

  Shoji sighed. “Your loss.”

  Farad folded his arms. “She’s right. This was a failure, and an expensive one. The test subjects were supposed to kill the Last Soldier and his partner, but instead, they defeated even the advanced prototype, and now the ID is undoubtedly scouring every piece of evidence on that station. We’ve exposed ourselves with this.”

  Shoji flicked a wrist, a dismissive look on his face. “And they’ll find nothing. There’s no trail that leads directly back to our researchers. They’ll have what they always have—supposition and suspicion that combine into nothing concrete. You consider it an expensive failure, but I contest that. It wasn’t a failure. It was a wonderful success.” He looked around. “You people need to change your perspective.”

  “What strange world do you live in where that was a success?” Farad blinked and shook his head, his face twisted in anger and disbelief over the utter foolishness coming out of the other man’s mouth.

  “I live in the same world as the rest of you.” Shoji gestured at the image of the super-zombie. “As I said, modify your perspective, Farad. As an assassination attempt, it failed, but it was a useful field test of a potential tool. You’ll live longer if you don’t stress out over unnecessary jokes.” He snickered. “Sorry, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.”

  Ivan scoffed. “This was how you wanted to test it? If it was a test
, we should have used it against the government factions that stand against us, not a pointless prison station filled with rabble.”

  “Why not?” Shoji waved a hand. “It’s the perfect test for what you’re describing. We were able to infiltrate a highly secure, controlled facility and infect a number of subjects. If we’d tried a different target, we might have failed.” Shoji licked his lips, his smile growing. “We were also able to deploy the tools through third parties with minimal training, proving the viability of the tool for a variety of targets and applications. The project requires additional research, but now we have useful and practical field data on the abilities of the test subjects, up to and including heavy weapons use. What is that but a rousing success?”

  Sophia swept her hand through the air, and the super-zombie image vanished. A large holographic depiction of Molino appeared.

  “We must be more cautious in the coming months,” she stated. “Although we’ve tied up several loose ends, some of our recent efforts have failed, and we must expect blowback from our enemies. The Last Soldier and his partner are irritants, but they can make us vulnerable to others with substantially more bite.”

  A beautiful woman with blue-black hair named Julia leaned forward at the other end of the table. She was dressed well even by the standards of a Core meeting, with an elaborately embroidered silk dress showing off her pale, delicate shoulders.

  Sophia frowned and looked her way. No one in the Core could be completely trusted, but Julia was more unpredictable than most. She also hadn’t cared to speak during their last two meetings.

  “What?” Sophia asked, the word coming out with the intensity of a curse.

  “Have you considered another option?” Julia’s words came out with warmth and sweetness. The feigned sincerity sickened Sophia.