An Eighty Percent Solution (CorpGov) (46 page)

“Tolly
,
get up and grab that arm!” 

He made it by bare m
icro
seconds
.
This time
,
her body
rocked
in jackhammer-like strokes on the bed
.
Her hips lifted
nearly
30
centimeters
before crashing down each time
.
The third oscillation took off the
remaining
legs of the bed with the report similar to a pair of gunshots, milliseconds apart
.

Sonya
, the newest arrival
,
bolted
in from the front door
.
She chanted something as she ran full speed to the side of the bed
.
From one hand she cast
a handful of
dust at
Suet’s
vibrating form
.
All motion stopped instantly
.

“Augustine, that won’t last long
,” Sonya announced as the others allowed themselves a brief moment to relax
.
“
Get her implants shut down now
!
”

“Two minutes,” came the slightly muffled reply.

“This is no cold,” Sonya spat at Tony in the rarest display of temper
.

Tony looked
at her
,
stunned
, unable to think of anything to say in response.

“What happened?” Sonya asked
,
forcibly calming herself down
.

Tolly took up the description after two deep breaths and a brief examination of a dinner
-
plate
-
sized abrasion on his abdomen
.
“I got a ring from Suet’s flat-mate,
Sandy
.
Suet asked her to
ring
me
up
because she was having troubles controlling voluntary servos
.
I’ve
m
eched for Suet in the past
.
I
didn’t think anything of it until I came in and found
Sandy
lying
on the floor with her neck broken.
Then I put out the all
-
points alarm per doctrine
.
You know most of the rest.”

“You were right about the illnesses, Sonya
,” admitted Tony. “
What
’
s our next step?”

“Closest to this I’ve heard of is epilepsy
,
but gengineering cleared that up fifty years or more ago
.
When Augustine
’
s done
,
I’ll have her search the medical databases.”

“What about the others?”

“Nothing like this
.
Jonah’s symptoms seem to be that of radiation poisoning
.
Frances
looks more like malaria
.
Andrew, Colin
,
and
Art
h
ur
have
each
complained of fevers
,
but
have
no further symptoms
.
The only core members that
I know of that don’t seem
to be affected are you, Augustine
,
and Christine.”

“What about you?”
Tony asked
.

Sonya’s composure momentarily slid
.
Deep lines
showed out from under
her eyes while the frown of her face intensified
.
A yellow pallor
became visible
under the olive skin
.
These images flashed for but
a
moment
,
and once again fell victim to her iron control
.
Her
brows knitted tighter together in concentration.

“Mine seems to be focusing on my liver
,
similar to severe sclerosis
.
I’ll be honest
…
I’m holding myself together with spells and little else at the moment.”

“I think you made mention of a deeper probe into this
.
How can I help?”
Tony asked.

“I brought my
blood
-
drawing kit
.”

“I’ve always hated needles
,
”
Tony
said with a shudder.

* * *
 

“Encryption enabled
.
Connection established,” said the sultry
computer
-
automated device
.
Tony often wondered if they chose those voices to make certain men, at least,
would
pay
attention
.
This time he, Augustine
,
and about eighty kilos of computer equipment crammed themselves into a
two
-
and
-
a
-
half
-
meter square women’s bathroom in Benito’s Fine Dining
.
Andrea
,
duplicitously garbed
in bodyguard yellow, watched the door
.
Based on the
two
previous meetings
,
they didn’t expect any danger, but they could take no chances.

“As we agreed
,
this will be my final call,”
Nanogate
said without preamble
.
He didn’t have to like what survival dictated
.

“As agreed,” Tony said as he watched Augustine’s face for any sign of a trace, but it remained passive
.
While the last call, it also was the most dangerous
in other ways
—
very little h
eld
the other from reneging on any promise.

“I hope by now I’ve given you enough evidence that I can be trusted.”

“You
’
ve been
very
forthcoming thus far.”

“As have you
.
My final intelligence is how to obtain a direct tap into the
Taste Dynamics
net
.”

Augustine’s head jerked up.

“We have a tap into their network
,
”
remarked Tony casually.

“Not beyond their executive firewall you don’t
.”

The lust in Augustine’s eyes struck
Tony
harder than anything she could
’
ve said
.
“
OK
.
You have our attention
.”

Nanogate
allowed himself a tiny chuckle
.
“I thought I might
.
As before
,
I
won’t
admit to any technical knowledge I don’t have
.
I’ve been assured by a very good source that there is an old fiber optic link inside
Taste Dynamics
that passes
through a
low security
janitorial closet
because of a
remodel this
last
week
.
You will find the schematics and pictures on the data carrier
.”

Augustine nodded.

“Apparently
,” continued Nanogate, “
some contractor didn’t know what it was and decided that for his ease of work, sliding it over a
meter
would be acceptable
.
I don’t know how long
it’ll
remain in place, but I expect until
the
inspection at the
end of construction
approximately one week from today
.”

“That
’
s very impressive and seems complete
.
Anything more to share?”

“Just a question.”

“Go on.”

“How long will you leave
Nanogate
alone after this
?”

Tony paused
.
It wasn’t a question he
’d
considered
.
He could lie
.
He could make something up
.
It wasn’t anything they
as a team
had remotely discussed
.

“Assuming the information you gave us pays off,
we won’t
directly attack any physical asset of your conglomerate for three full years
.”

“Acceptable
.
This
finalizes
our agreement,
Mr. Sammis
.”

Before Tony could respond the line went dead
.
Augustine once again went wide-eyed
,
but for a reason that Tony didn’t understand
.

“Three years?!” burst Linc’s voice over the alternate line
.
“How could you
propose
such a thing?
!
We’ve finally got them on the run and you throw it away?” Venom dripped with each word
, but it broke when Linc began
a series of
wracking coughs that just didn’t seem to end
.

“I do have to agree with Linc’s assessment
,
if not his vehemence,” Sonya rasped in a voice that broke twice into a hoarse whisper
.

“I had to come up with something on the fly
,”
Tony snapped from fatigue
.
“
Look, I don’t see any of you sitting in the hot seat
.
”
Between missions and Suet’s bedside vigil
,
his sleep in the last week totaled less than five hours
,
and that only because Sonya slipped a needle full of Doz into his ass
.

“No one questioned your
—
”

“Yes, Sonya, they did
.
Before I drop this call
,
I want you to understand two things about this
.

“First
,
we always have the option of NOT living up to the agreement I made
.
I don’t like that option
,
but it exists
.
Second, if we work through the other major conglomerates,
it’ll
take us at least three years, even with an increase in operational tempo
,
to get back to
Nanogate
.”

“But we’d finish off
Nanogate
without a sweat in just a few weeks.”

“True, but
we’d
be hitting lower priority targets when we need high visibility right now
.
We need to increase our recruiting to a point where we can run multiple operations every day all across the solar system
.
That’s
something our pitiful dozen can’t manage
, not
even with the second cell that seems to be coming along so well.
”

He sucked in a couple of deep breaths, rubbing his eyes from fatigue.
“I’m sorry, I’m so tired I can’t be diplo.”

“Go back to your flat
.
We can hold the fort
.
Aces!”

“Just one more thing,” Augustine interrupted
.
“How did he know Tony’s
real
name?”

* * *
 

Tony entered
the ancient theatre
, stepping around the worst of the mold and mildew on the floor
.
Nearly one
hundred people milled about, not settled and confident as usual before an
all
-
hands strategy meeting
, but more like a disturbed anthill
.
They whispered
,
but with large spaces between them and their confidant
.
No one shook hands, or kissed on the cheek or patted on another’s back
.
If any doubt remained
,
it erased itself as he moved closer
.
The stinging
scent
of nervous perspiration mixed with other less pleasant smells
.