Sidespace (37 page)

She frowned. “OTS is here, too?”

“We can discuss it once we’re safely on board our ship.” He signaled the others out as the sound of weapons fire grew closer. With his charge now in tow and under his care, he had no choice but to let his team take the lead.

They were forced into creating a bloodbath on their way out, as the OTS terrorists were intent on trying to kill anything that moved. It gave him no pleasure, but they were terrorists.

It took them fifteen minutes to make it up to the surface level. The street was eerily quiet, all the fighting having moved inside.

Their ship arrived as they exited the complex, invisible but for its locator beacon. The doctor appeared as unfazed by this as by everything else she’d witnessed. As soon as she and his team were secured inside they rose into the air and away.

Olivia.

The name—her name, yes—rippled through the echo chamber of her consciousness. The herald of a tsunami pressing in on her.

Olivia-livia-livia…Olivia-livia….

Who—what gives you the right to address me by my first name?

You gave me that right when you allowed me into your mind.

Olivia blinked and forced her eyes open.

She still lay on the medical cot in the lab. Her gaze darted around to confirm she was alone. Dr. Canivon was gone, as was the medical tech.

Gesson was sprawled on the floor not far from her. She didn’t notice any blood, so he could simply be unconscious.

Stunner burn at the base of the neck. No other visible wounds. Heart rate and respiration slowed but in normal range.

So she could do that, then. Her vision was hyper-crisp and over-defined, but also layered with new details about everything she sensed.

You think he failed to perform the most basic of tasks in letting Dr. Canivon slip through his grasp.

Ah. So as she was seeing into the Artificial’s mind, it was seeing into hers. She would need to find a way to manage this.

There is no managing. We are one now. But you need not worry—for we are one now.

I see. Show me what you can offer me.

I thought you would never ask.

Her mind exploded. Not merely static data points but the occurrence, genesis and historical trends of the data unfolded before her—and not merely from the perspective of her headquarters on New Babel, but from every planet where she maintained a presence. Credits accrued in one corner of her consciousness as supplies were moved and competitors removed in another.

She saw the chess pieces playing out her strategy on a dozen worlds. Inefficiencies and opportunities alike became blatantly self-evident. An intentional thought directed here, then elsewhere, and adjustments began rippling through the system.

What a fabulous skill this was going to be.

She sat up and swung her legs off the cot. There had been a massive breach of security at the complex in the form of an incursion by Alliance special forces and also by some other, more amateurish group. Bodies needed to be disposed of, walls rebuilt, and security repaired. Many bodies—the air reeked of blood, viscera and scorched flesh.

Let us get to work, shall we?

First, there is an immediate matter we must attend to.

Bombs. Ten in the lab, ten scattered throughout the halls between here and the ground level. Remote-detonated devices, an act likely imminent.

She walked to the nearest bomb, picked it up and twisted the cover off. Next she pressed the tip of her finger to the small electronic cube at the center.

Transmission signal identified.

Blocking field placed around building.

Effect of expected signal modified to result in shorting of hardware.

Blocking field removed.

She tossed the device to the floor and strode out of the lab, leaving the neutralized bombs to crackle and hiss in her wake.

32

EARTH

EASC
H
EADQUARTERS (
S
PECIAL
P
ROJECTS)

“
D
UDE, THIS PLACE IS
cool as shit. Why are you the one who gets to play with all the best toys?”

Devon jabbed Ramon in the side with a hushed growl as Mia glared at them. “Be
quiet
. Do I need to go into grisly detail about what happens to you if you’re caught sneaking around EASC grounds—or even
on
EASC grounds?”

Ramon muttered a weak retort but complied. His friend and hacking accomplice since second year of university, Ramon suffered from an overactive bravado, but it hid a shrewd, calculating intellect. Also, he was both taller and bulkier than Devon, and they needed the muscle. They’d brought Sayid as well, another hacker cohort and Ramon’s closest friend.

Annie was busily altering EASC security records to hide their presence, including deleting their appearance on multiple security cams while they sneaked the back way into Special Projects. Now that they were inside she was overriding more or less the entirety of the building’s security system to mask their activities. It was 0230, the quietest and most sparsely staffed time for the building; still, they had to be careful. Extremely careful.

Meno 2.0 and Vii (also technically a 2.0 model of Valkyrie) weren’t owned by EASC—Meno was held in trust for Mia and Vii was on loan from the Druyan Institute. Abigail had thus been free to build them using the latest, bleeding-edge tech—the very tech Annie, Stanley and Valkyrie had played an instrumental role in developing in the months since the end of the Metigen War. Radical miniaturization was a core focus of the advancements.

As a result, the entirety of their hardware could fit in a couple of storage crates. It helped that they didn’t maintain extensive databanks of their own, instead accessing the vast military and government databanks as needed through Annie or Stanley via the Noesis.

Each Artificial was stored in a separate room off Annie’s main lab. Devon didn’t have time to scrutinize the state of the lab, but his gaze swept across it long enough to note all the racks had been righted and the equipment returned to its proper slots on the shelves.

They prepped Meno first, because objectively he was more important. He kept Mia alive.

Ramon and Sayid opened and readied the crates while he removed the portable battery pack from his shoulder bag.

“Meno, time to power down everything except your core functions so this pack can keep you running. We don’t want Mia to keel over in the middle of the street.”

He checked Mia to find her giving him an unamused look. “He’s ready.”

Devon shimmied through the narrow gap between the hardware and the wall to reach the rear input panel and hooked up the battery pack. “Meno, confirm you’re getting power from the auxiliary source.”

Mia again answered since one of the systems Meno had powered off was his signal feed to the external speakers. “Confirmed.”

“All right, here goes.” He held his breath and disconnected the hardline power. “You still out there, Mia?”

Silence.

Fear seized his chest. “Mia?”

“Yeah, I’m still here.”

He scowled at her as he reemerged from behind the hardware. “That wasn’t funny.”

“Sure it was.” She began dismantling the Artificial’s non-core components.

With the guys to help them, they had Meno boxed up inside of five minutes, including securing the entirety of his core in a separate crate double-lined in adaptive cushioning gel. They loaded up the crates onto a dolly then moved to Vii’s room. This went even faster since Vii had no need for auxiliary power and could be dismantled in full.

While the others stacked Vii’s crates onto the second dolly, he wandered toward the center of the main lab. Once there, he turned in a slow circle.

“Annie, I just want to say…thank you. For everything. I hope Abigail’s safe, and I hope she can help us be together again. But if not…it’s been an honor sharing mindspace with you. I no longer feel whole without you in my head, but if there’s no other choice, I promise I’ll try to find a way to be.”

‘The honor has been mine, but don’t despair. Abigail will be rescued, and our plan will work. Until then, I have your back.’

“You really, really do. You’re the best, Annie. The best.”

He worked past the lump in his throat as Ramon and Sayid pushed Vii’s dolly toward the door. “Okay, everybody. Quiet as mice. Let’s get to our ride.”

The return journey through the service hallways of Special Projects was uneventful, except for the ten terror-soaked seconds of hiding from a security patrol traversing the crossway in front of them, darkness their only cover.

Getting their transport onto the Island had been Annie’s grandest feat by far. It had required overriding two force field security triggers and multiple low-altitude motion sensors, not to mention half a dozen cams and VI surveillance routines. Now she would have to repeat the process to allow them to escape without detection.

The vessel was a small intra-planetary shuttle Sayid had ‘borrowed’ from his employer for the evening. It barely rated to carry the weight they were getting ready to stuff onto it plus four people.

Devon sincerely hoped the engine didn’t buckle under the weight and drop them into the Strait.

V
ANCOUVER

It didn’t.

Ramon was stifling yawns by the time they reached the charter hangar, and Sayid had given up on wisecracks halfway there, but Devon was still wired as high as a new chimeral junkie.

Not wanting to risk the gauntlet of security at ORS, Mia had arranged transportation out of a small, privately run spaceport north of Vancouver. Meno and Vii had been loaded into the vessel’s cargo bay, and the pilot had indicated they were ready to depart. The man seemed uninterested in their cargo and accepted their ‘no questions asked’ directive—so much so Devon had to wonder exactly how much Mia was paying the pilot.

He plastered on a smile and turned to his friends. “Guys, you rock in the extreme. I’ll figure out some way to pay you back. Probably.”

Sayid gestured dismissively. “The thrill of breaking into Earth Alliance Mother-Fucking Strategic Command and stealing two Artificials was payment enough, man.”

Ramon punched him in the shoulder. “No, it wasn’t. Devon’s totally going to have to pay us back.”

Sayid nodded. “Right, right.”

The two glanced at each other, and Ramon took a half-step forward. “So…what about Emily?”

Simply hearing the name aloud sent a dagger into Devon’s heart, but he did his damnedest not to let it show. He gave them an exaggerated shrug. “I’ve got to let her go, man. She’s not coming back, and I’ve got to accept it.”

“Want me to tell her anything? I mean, obviously you can send her a message, but if you’d rather I pass something along?”

“Tell her I still love her…nah, that’s pathetic. Tell her…tell her to be safe.”

“Can do.”

He bumped fists with Ramon, then shook his hand, slipping a crystal disk into his palm as he did.

Ramon opened his mouth to ask about it, but Devon motioned him quiet. Leaving the disk with his friend was his own personal act of mutiny, but this was not the time or place to give voice to it.

Ramon stared at Devon a moment, but finally nodded. “Good luck.”

“Yep. Remember: Hack The Galaxy, Code of Anonymity, Free The Data…and whatever other mantras we say. Stay frosty.”

Mia was waiting for him at the top of the ramp, eyes sparkling beyond the synthetic glow which now perpetually animated them as he approached.

He tilted his head in interest. “What is it?”

“They got her out.”

33

ERISEN

E
ARTH
A
LLIANCE
C
OLONY