“Down here?”
“No. Up there.”
And I got it. I kicked myself. It was something I should have thought of, despite the Undernet not being a big part of Basic Training.
“Think of it as a form of specialist Advanced training. I’m pretty sure Tens could show you, if you asked.”
I wondered if he would.
“Multiple redundancies are a good thing to have,” Abby told me. “Mack knows that—and Tens would see the point.”
I was sure he would, but how much of Mack’s ‘persuasion’ would be required, was entirely another question.
Abby snickered.
“You don’t have faith in anybody, do you?”
“I try.”
She shifted her focus, looking ‘up’ in our virtual world, and I followed her gaze.
“There?”
“It’s one possibility.”
“Uh, Abby?”
“Yeah, I see them.”
“You reckon its wolf territory, over there.”
“That, or Sharovan. I’m still not sure who you kicked, this morning…or who they talked to, when you left.”
She had a good point.
“Tell you what. I’m going to run a search that puts Sharovan and Mishamblin in the same string, and I’ll chase that down. What are you thinking of doing?”
And the air around me crackled with purpose and threat.
“Me?” Abby asked. “I’m thinking, I might give these boys a run for their money, kick their asses, and then rip every piece of data out of their memory that I can reach.”
Back in the cubicle, I knew my face was echoing the tight, warlike smile her construct was wearing. She pushed me.
“Let your search string loose. I can take care of these guys.”
“Call me, if you need back-up.”
She reached out and did the virtual equivalent of ruffling my hair.
“Get going. I have work to do.”
From the way she said it, she didn’t think of it as work. More like fun, with a little bit of sin thrown in. I left her to it. My search threw up the company structure of one multi-squillionaire, Terrence Costoganzi, showing Mishamblin and Sharovan Protective Services as two distant arms of a corporate empire. I took a copy of it, and tried to find communications between the two.
No surprise that there was nothing direct, so I ran a second search, using the map of Costoganzi’s corporate structure to guide me. It took a little bit, but I eventually found the trail Sharovan’s comms took to reach Mishamblin. Those sneaky sons-of-bitches!
I pulled the most recent message, unscrambled it, and thanked the Stars that Sharovan’s encryption was nowhere near as good as its actual defense measures. I took enough time to copy the message, and then snuck out of Mishamblin’s in-box, wondering how Abby was going.
“Doing fine, kiddo,” she said, grabbing me by my virtual collar and hauling me out of the Mishamblin router. “Gotta go.”
We did?
“Yes. Because, you, young lady, are as subtle as the proverbial brick in the face.”
She pulled me back to the Undernet and threw me into the link between that and the terminal in the research centre.
“Catch you on deck. We have a lot of debriefing to do.”
I had just enough time to register that her net construct was carrying a backpack that looked stuffed to the max, and then she ripped the link free, and started shredding.
Well, damn. I guess I’d been in more trouble than I’d known. I scrambled back into the terminal’s buffer and then into my head, and unplugged. As I did the computer made a vicious crackling sound, followed by a small series of pops and the expensive brown smell of burning circuitry. Double damn.
I pulled the power, and pushed my seat back. I’d locked the cubicle again, so it was no surprise to find Hella waiting on the other side.
“Case says you missed lunch, Ma’am, and she’ll see you and Abs in the caf.”
“I’ve just got to print…”
“Case also says that if you touch another computer on the way up to the caf, she’ll break your fingers.” Hella stopped, and her face turned scarlet. “I… I’m sorry, but that’s what she told me to say.”
I eyed her thoughtfully.
“And did Case tell you what would happen if you did not deliver her message exactly as she said it.”
The red faded from the girl’s face, and she went an odd shade of grey, and nodded. I decided not to make her repeat Case’s threat.
“I guess we’d better go, then. I hope I didn’t keep you waiting long.”
And she shook her head, hurrying swiftly through the rec room, and out into the corridors of the ship proper. I wondered what she’d done to deserve the task of fetching me.
“Never you mind!” Case’s voice was gun-shot sharp as I stepped into the corridor, and, before I could respond to that, she’d reached into my skull and pulled the message copy and the map of Costoganzi’s corporate structure from my mind.
“Nice work,” and she passed them over to Abby. “Abs?”
“I will forward those to Odyssey for their files, and to my colleagues for their reference. We will come at him from all sides.”
“So, he’s the one we have to take down to get the contract lifted?” I asked, and was hushed from two sides.
“You are a menace of the first order,” Abby told me. “I can’t believe Odyssey’s training is so lacking—and I will be recommending a retraining intensive to Mack.”
What the fuck had I done?
“You waltzed past a half dozen tripwires, and rang his front doorbell,” Case told me. “And you failed to realize the buffer you walked through was a trap, even if the router itself was the real deal.” Abby didn’t quite add ‘amateur’ to the end of that, but she might as well have. Her tone said it all.
Shit.
“Rookie mistake,” Case said. “You’ll know for next time.”
So there was going to be a next time. Well, that was good to know.
Case snorted.
“Hella, we need coffee and lunch, and the captain’s mess.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” Hella gestured towards the officer’s mess Mack used to discuss things out of hearing of the rest of the caf. “I’ll bring it shortly.”
We headed through, me in Case’s wake, and Abby in my head. I felt like an awkward teenager
