and it was fake; it could be deactivated. This could not. This was people fear, glandular fear. He glanced behind him, enjoying the novelty of ungovernable emotion even as it quickened his heart and impelled him to hurry down the drive. The crunch of gravel underfoot made him wince. A gust of wind tickled the trees. Dead rhododendron leaves rustled in the understorey; a sterile, woody scent carried from them.
He made sure he kept to the middle of the road, away from the fringes of the woods, just in case.
Richards turned from looking behind himself just in time to walk into a musty barrier, as solid as a brick wall, in a dirty fur coat.
Richards spat hair from his mouth and looked up, and up.
Heavy paws dangled like mallets from long arms. Close-set eyes burned cold in a face as long as a wet Wednesday. Teeth glinted in the moonlight. A tiny Roman centurion's helmet sat atop a blockish head. A damp, heavy smell hit Richards like a billiard ball in a sock.
'A bear,' said Richards, savouring the cocktail of mild surprise and terror his new body furnished him with.
'Damn right,' said the bear. It jabbed a dagger-long claw at Richards' face. 'By all rights I should eat you, sunshine.'
'I'd rather you didn't,' said Richards.
The bear didn't. 'It's your lucky day. No devouring of prisoners,' it said. 'Regulations.'
'Oh, good,' said Richards.
'But hey!' The bear smiled a forest of teeth and held up a claw. 'I can do this.' The bear punched him full in the face, and Richards found the stars the sky was missing.
CHAPTER 3
'No. Absolutely not.' Chures pushed his chair back from the conference table and stood. He leaned forward, pressing his fingertips onto the table's active glass surface.
'The decision's been made, Agent Chures,' Deputy Director Sobieski, his perfect eugene face hard, stressed the title. 'Klein has all the relevant clearances, and a valid freelance license. His partner's in the Reality Realms right now. Klein is qualified and invested. Surely you can see he's a good choice.'
The others in the room watched in silence: Veronique Valdaire with her phone Chloe on the table in front of her, a fat Texan called Milton with USNA Homeland Security — the big guns, at least so far as human influence went — a fastidiouslooking VIA agent who'd introduced himself as Swan, Henson, a stout man in military fatigues from USNA Landwar, and a beefy-looking Boer, a UN attache who was too important to have offered his name. There were a handful of others round the table, but Otto could tell the spectators from the players easily enough. The ones who didn't matter wore the fixed expressions of people who did not wish to get involved in Chures' argument.
'We have plenty of qualified people of our own,' said Chures.
'We do. And Klein here took out a whole squad of them without too much trouble,' said Sobieksi, 'while he was saving your ass, if I recall. And which of them has a resume like this?' Sobieski tapped at the table. The area in front of Chures sprang into life, 2D and holo files opening up on the table and above it, detailing Otto's career as a soldier and security consultant. Chures didn't look at it.
'Sobieski…'
'It's Assistant Director today, in here, Chures,' the eugene warned.
Chures gritted his teeth. He did not care to be put in his place. ' Assistant Director Sobieski. He's too close to the Fives.'
'That's another reason he's in, and that is not our call. The Three Uncle Sams and the machines in the UN have swung it. The Director agrees. The numbers want him on board, so he's staying.'
'Since when did we do what the machines say? It's one of them we're supposed to be bringing down. The VIA works on equal partnership terms between man and machine.' He looked around the table. 'It did when I signed my life away. Has something changed?'
Sobieski leaned forward. 'Yes, it has, and that's all the more reason for the numbers to want all this resolved quickly. We're all on the same side, in this and all other matters. Don't forget that, Chures.'
Chures stood his ground. 'Sobieski, let me take my own team, my own men…'
'Assistant Director, Chures, Assistant Director.' Sobieski sighed. 'Chures, sit down.'
Chures kept his grey eyes fixed on Otto as he sank into his chair. The wounds were healing. Wounds inflicted on him by his doppelganger, an advanced cybernetic android intended to replace him under the direction of k52, others taken at the hands of men in grey, mercenaries of some kind, as he'd scoured the southwest of the old US for Valdaire.
His olive-brown skin was marred with yellow and purple bruising, and a geckro membrane bandage covered his neck where the remains of his treacherous AI personality blend Bartolomeo had been removed. He'd had a manicure; his jewellery, expensive clothes and shoes were back. His twin custom uplinks, one behind each ear, had been replaced, but it'd take a lot more than a well-tailored suit to cover his hurts. He was smarting from the beatings he'd taken, and that he'd been saved from death by Klein, a man he could never trust.
'As far as the rest of the world is concerned, we're going to be doing our job,' said Sobieksi. 'The VIA is putting all of its efforts into preventing the spread of k52's influence into the rest of the Grid. We'll have teams working alongside the National Guard and UN forces to secure the Realm House. It will remain locked down, but short of actually nuking the place, we've no way to get k52 out. That's where Klein and his partner come in.'
'His partner? How can we be sure Richards is not in league with the renegade?' said Chures, angry.
'He warned us, Chures.'
'It's a bluff, Sobieski, Klein's a risk…'
'There will be no more disagreement on this matter.' A voice intruded, that of Xerxes, a Class Five AI, like Richards, like k52. Xerxes was Uncle Sam 3, one of the AI triumvirate that ruled the United States of North America in all but name.
A holo beamed in via isolated tightbeam, away from the Grid where k52 might see, and followed the voice. Xerxes wore the face of an earnest government man. It was appropriate, for, though he was no man, he was a third of the government of a third of the world, and the VIA agents and EuPol specials and FBI and EuSec spooks and CIEA ghosts in the stateroom and watching via link reacted accordingly. The holo, fizzing with solar interference, manifested at the head of the table. Otto didn't react. He'd got too used to the Fives and their cheap melodrama. They were far too human, in their way.
'We desire that this issue be resolved immediately,' Xerxes said without preamble. 'It has been determined that the freelance security consultant Otto Klein, along with Doctor Veronique Valdaire, will accompany VIA Agent Santiago Chures. Klein is to have equal authority to Chures. This is a multilateral effort. The UN has agreed. That is all.' The holo winked out.
'There, that settles that,' said Sobieski. He pointed at his subordinate. 'They are always listening, Chures, so don't go against what they say or you'll be off this case altogether. As for you, Klein — ' Sobieski looked at the German '- don't think I'm entirely happy about this. This is a VIA affair, not work for mercenaries. But you've got yourself a Five for a buddy and as we're seeing here, they're all real tight with each other.' He leaned back and clasped his hands behind his head in pure alpha display — the eugenes could help their display behaviour about as much as a monkey could. 'On the other hand, this is Five business, Klein, so I guess if you fail or succeed you'll be answering to them. And for that I'm relieved; rather you than me.'
Otto wondered what Valdaire made of the argument. He was glad to have her; without Richards they needed someone who knew the machine world, and, under the current circumstances, better a human than a number. As ex-InfoWar and a renowned AI expert, he couldn't think of anyone more suitable. She sat across the table, mouth thin. She didn't think much of Chures' objections then. But Otto's authority, that had been a surprise to the German; he'd been expecting Chures to be given sole command.
'Agent Swan, give us the current situation on the renegade,' said Sobieski.
