The captain sighed and pulled up what looked like a map of a building on the main display. “Well, at least she gave us thorough intel on the place's layout and defenses, assuming they're accurate.” He leaned forward, studying the display. “The question we have to ask before Elyssa calls again is, can we take this place?”
Ali hesitated. “Given its secrecy it's light on security personnel, aside from of course multiple combat androids, since this is an ERI facility.” That stood to reason, Lana supposed, since that was the corporation that made the fighting robots. “They're mostly used for manual labor and not for fighting,” the companion continued, “but during an attack they'll certainly be activated for that purpose.”
“How is a bunch of combat androids “light” on security?” Barix demanded. “You and Fix going to take them all out, maybe with the gunner and our fearless captain to help?”
The beautiful woman gave him a toothy smile. “As it happens, Elyssa has the override codes for all the androids there. We can easily deactivate them, and if we have time even reprogram them to fight for us against their own masters.”
“You mean the super secret codes that supposedly nobody but the owners have access to, and ERI guards more jealously than the actual combat androids they're attached to?” Belix whistled. “So on this spur of the moment business opportunity our old crew mate has stumbled on, she not only has a way to get us into the facility but also complete tactical intel and a way of taking over its security measures? What exactly does she need us for, then?”
“Like she said, to be her delivery boys and girls,” Aiden growled, glaring thoughtfully at the display with the map of Recluse's facility. “The question is, is this so easy it's too good to be true?”
“Actually,” Barix said, for once seeming dead serious, “the real question is, if that old bird can hack into a monolith like ERI this easily, do we really want to say no to her?”
Chapter Seven
Recluse
Aiden didn't like this.
It wasn't that he distrusted Elyssa, or at least no more than he should. People in her position may have seemed like they could do whatever they wanted, even screw over people who'd worked with them in the past on a whim. But generally, smart people learned to earn a reputation for keeping their end of deals in order to rise to power, as well as a reputation for punishing those who didn't do the same.
It kept everyone playing nice, the closest you could get to honor among thieves.
In fact, the influence of someone like Elyssa in this galaxy was probably a stabilizing force, keeping things more peaceful and circumspect than was usual for criminal organizations. Not to mention that Aiden himself had a reputation for not being the kind of person you betrayed, and it went a long ways towards keeping people honest. At least while they were under his ship's guns.
Besides, in spite of the circumstances of their parting, he didn't really think his old crew member would try to double cross him. He remembered her as being quiet, earnest, competent, and fiercely loyal. At least up until just before she left, that is. She'd certainly changed in some ways in the last decade, but had she changed that much?
Aiden didn't think so; he fully expected that her intel was as good as she could make it, which looked pretty blazing good, and that when the job was done she'd pay up as promised. He also trusted that she wouldn't betray him to the Deeks, if for no other reason than loyalty to the failed Preservationist cause.
Still, something about the situation felt fishy to him. Elyssa was in too much of a hurry, and relying too much on people she couldn't, or at least shouldn't, be confident she completely controlled. There was something bigger going on here, a potential for more chits than your ordinary job could earn you, maybe.
Or maybe some secret agenda of the facilitator's, one she was willing to take a chance on. Especially if it meant risking the necks of people besides her own agents.
On the plus side, when it came time to give the severe woman his decision and he agreed to take the job, she not only seemed pleased but even advanced him a sum of 10,000 chits to one of his anonymous accounts; Ali verified it before the Last Stand jumped out of the system on their way to the Uris system.
Ostensibly, those accounts used encryptions with keys that were untouchable by even the most clever hackers, not even if they used a computer with all the processing power in the universe for billions of years trying to crack one. Which meant that Elyssa had already paid him half for the job, which was as much as anyone could ask for with work like this.
Whether she'd pay him the other half when the job was done was anyone's guess, but even if not they'd come out better on this job than most others. Assuming the security was as easy as she claimed, and the access codes she'd provided all worked as promised. Otherwise this would be flat out suicide and she was sending them to their deaths.
The paranoid part of him couldn't discount that, but there was no reason for her to go to the trouble. No profit to be had from getting him and his crew killed, no personal grudge big enough to warrant that kind of scheme.
Well, if it turned out she had anyway Aiden supposed they'd find out soon.
They spent the couple days it took to jump out to the secret facility planning the attack. Which was mostly straightforward, a simple matter
