She focused on the newcomer once more. He seemed nervous, and immediately dropped his gaze when her eyes met his.
“Warden,” the man said without looking up. “It’s an honor to meet you.” He sounded genuinely in awe.
“You scanned him for hidden weapons?” Rhea asked, keeping her distance. Well, as much distance as could be had in a cramped cargo container.
Renaldo nodded. “If he’s stuffed a bomb up his arse, he’s hidden it well.”
Rhea hoped they had checked him with external scanners, and not via a method that was more… violating.
“What’s your name?” she asked the man.
“DragonHunter, Miss Warden, Ma’am,” the man said.
She frowned. “Sounds like some gamer’s alias. Or a hacker’s.”
“That’s because it is,” Renaldo said. “Not even Jairlin knows his real name.”
She glanced at Jairlin. “How do you know him?”
“He wasn’t always like this,” Jairlin said, running a hand through his perfectly coiffed hair. “Before he started working for the Towners, he had a life.”
“Towners?” Rhea pressed.
“It’s a guild in an online game known as Barter Life,” Jairlin said. “They’re essentially a hacking group. Often hired out by different cyber gangs across the world. Anyway, I first met him when I needed some hacking done, years ago. He was still calling himself DragonHunter back then. But he dressed a lot better. He lived in Aradne, believe it or not.”
“How far the great have fallen,” Renaldo muttered.
“I chose this!” DragonHunter told the Wardenite heatedly. “I don’t need worldly possessions. Everything I have is up here.” He tapped the goggles attached to his face.
“Well, I don’t need to hear your life story,” Rhea said. “Do you know anything about Veil, or not?”
The man swallowed anxiously. Finally, he met her eyes, for a brief moment. “I heard you have a Faraday cage. Can we use it?”
Rhea glanced at Horatio, who shrugged imperceptibly. “Fine.” She beckoned toward her bedchamber. “Lead him inside.”
She stepped back while Renaldo and Jairlin directed the man into her bedroom.
“Nice crib,” DragonHunter commented when he saw the spartan interior. “I remember when I used to have a real bed. Can’t say I miss it. There’s just something invigorating about sleeping outside on the hard ground that can’t be replicated indoors.”
Rhea entered with Horatio and shut the door. The network signal on her HUD instantly cut out.
“Now then, Veil…” Rhea said.
DragonHunter gazed suspiciously at the small dots of the motion sensors that dotted the walls. When his eyes spotted the dome of the security camera, he glanced at her. “Can we shut that down?”
Rhea shrugged, then logged into its remote interface. “The camera is off.”
“And can you all stop recording with your local devices?” he pressed.
Rhea stared at him incredulously, then glanced at her companions. “Deactivate AR recording.”
She pulled up the necessary menus on her HUD and turned off video logging.
Then she turned toward DragonHunter. “It’s done. So then. Veil?”
DragonHunter’s eyes were defocusing. Obviously he was checking if he could read any of their signals. Rhea deactivated her remote interface entirely, not wanting to risk any hack attempts. If Horatio or any of the others needed to talk to her privately, they could pull her aside to the adjacent room.
“Veil is one of Aradne's crime lords,” DragonHunter said. “He’s known by many names. Damascus. Resolutus. Scourge of the North.”
That latter name seemed vaguely familiar, though she wasn’t sure why. “Scourge of the North?”
The man shrugged. “He’s been very successful. So much so that in recent years he’s expanded his reach beyond Aradne to the Outlands north of the city, where he employs bandits to rob any unlucky salvagers and other travelers who happen to pass their way. They call themselves Veil’s Black Hands. They’ve been known to shoot down passing flyers as well: they’re opportunists to the extreme.”
“Nice guys,” she commented.
“This is why we usually take the westernmost exit,” Horatio commented to Rhea.
“You’ve been relying on the crowdsourced hotspot data for bandit activity?” DragonHunter asked. “If so, you’ve been lucky not to encounter them. The Black Hands routinely mess with that data. Anyway, Aradne’s security forces have tried to root them out on multiple occasions, but the Black Hands always seem to be one step ahead. It’s almost like they have someone on the inside to warn them whenever a raid is coming.”
“Veil himself?” she asked.
“Or someone who works for him,” DragonHunter answered. “But even with that advance warning, how they manage to escape without being caught on camera by the spy satellites, no one knows.”
The communications satellites that had once provided wireless Net access throughout the world had been fried in a cascade attack launched by a rogue nation many years ago. Since worldwide Net coverage was no longer needed, considering that no one lived in the Outlands anymore, the government couldn’t justify the replacement costs. But that didn’t stop them from replacing spy satellites—not that many were lost. While the spy satellites had also been targeted in the attack, most were equipped with defenses to protect themselves.
She glanced at Renaldo for a moment before returning her attention to the hacker. “So. I was told you knew Veil directly.”
“Oh, I do,” DragonHunter said. “I’ve never actually met him of course. But I’ve handled a ton of cyberwarfare jobs for him. He often gets me to run DoS attacks against his competitors.”
Rhea didn’t need a connection to the Net to know DoS stood for Denial of Service.
“I don’t suppose you can tell me his exact address?” she said. “I’d like to pay him a visit.”
DragonHunter started laughing. “Sorry. Excuse my laughter: I guess you don’t know how my business works. You have to understand, I make a
