Dragonfly (6 page)

“And it’s unbreakable,” Nikita said cheerfully. “Unless you own it. Maybe he’s going to impersonate Santiago Esperanza.”

Heat spread up from my guts. “What did you say?”

“I said, it’s unbreakable—”

“Unless you’re the one transmitting it.” I flipped back to the navigation page. “Where do they generate their cipher key?”

“What?”

He hadn’t caught on, but I was too excited to enjoy his puzzlement. “The key that deciphers the code. You just encode a bunch of digits with a cipher key, same as any single-use code. Then you send your friends the cipher key in a quantum-encrypted transmission. It’s secure because it’s impossible to intercept that transmission without garbling it—”

“I know what the uncertainty principle is, Aragon. I read it on the back of a cereal box.”

“Then you should know that it means Dragonfly can’t steal the encrypted key without giving himself away. But if he’s the one sending the key in the first place—”

“—and fools the other end into thinking he’s Esperanza?”

“Exactly. He’s not going to break the code. He’s going to write the key himself.”

“But if it’s a single-use cipher,” Nikita mused, “it’ll only be used to protect a single deposit.”

“Then he must know exactly what he’s aiming for. Something big, that’s leaving the vault during the surrender negotiations?”

He laughed. “How about the rebel colony’s entire tithe? They’re joining the Empire, remember? You don’t do that for nothing.”

“Which is how much?”

“Everything they own plus change.” He shrugged. “Cash, stocks, mining rights, the idents to a bunch of secure deposits. A billion sols, give or take.”

A billion new rubles. Holy shit. With that, the insurrection could build themselves an army.

I clenched my fists on my knees, my palms damp. “Okay. So he fakes the deposit code, and the colonists think their deposit is secure until surrender day. But he gets there a few minutes early and steals the loot.”

“Cocky little shit.” A mixture of contempt and admiration. “So assuming it’s even possible, what’s his next move?”

“He’ll have to generate their crypto … What’s the surrendering colony called again?”

“Santa Maria.” Nikita gave me a
read-the-damn-briefing
glare.

“Yeah, them. He’ll have to generate Santa Maria’s crypto at the time they make the deposit. So either he’ll need to build a quantum emulator—”

“Something that’ll look like Esperanza from the colonists’ end when they receive the cipher key? Sounds chancy.”

“It is,” I said. “Too chancy for our careful friend. Quantum emulators almost never work. The other way would be to intercept the key inside the Esperanza neurocomputer, before it gets transmitted.”

Nikita cocked a perfect blond eyebrow. “Can he do that?”

“I’ve never seen it done. But assume he can. He’ll have to do it from within the Esperanza security system. That’s what he’s hacked the ice for.” I thought hard, my brow furrowing. “But unless he’s already studied the schematics for their neurospace, it’ll take hours to integrate his own interception algorithm. Days, maybe.”

“He won’t want to sit there for hours. He’ll get caught.”

“So, first steal the schematics for study. Right?” I pursed my lips. “Unless he’s already done that.”

Nikita shook his head. “He got here six days ago, and since then he’s spent every evening playing tarocchi and every night on his ship, alone. If he’d broken the ice already, he’d have stolen the schematics and gone.”

“So it could be tonight.” I glanced up at him, mischief burning bright, happy holes in my composure. “He’ll have to download the schematic data on-site. There’s no outside access. Think he could use some help?”

“From a sexy crypto expert who just took him for half a million sols?” Nikita dropped his arm around my shoulder and kissed my forehead softly. “You bet he could.”

7

At twenty-three hundred local, I crouched over the Esperanza neurospace console in warm green light, waiting for Dragonfly. A neurospace is a living computer, brain tissue embedded with circuitry, and bio-diodes glowed on the console’s soft living skin, casting colored shadows over my hands as I worked. Glowing white streams of maintenance data flowed in columns. The thick air, laced with neuroplasma, made my skin clammy, and water dripped from the low plastic ceiling. Sweat trickled down my neck and between my breasts, soaking into my tight black scoop-necked top. I’d chosen tight shorts too, with my shatterjay strapped on the outside, and black combat boots. Lazuli, brazen little thief-whore. I liked her already.

I flipped through surveillance files, hunting for something juicy enough to be worth stealing. I wasn’t here to attack the vault; that was way too audacious for small-time scum like me. No, as far as Dragonfly was concerned, I worked for some faceless mob client who wanted the dirt on his enemies, and there was dirt enough here to bury half the sector. The amount of money flowing through the place meant that the Esperanza family needed to keep strict tabs on comings and goings. They had their own little intelligence service bubbling beneath their respectable surface, and from what I could see, they coerced, cheated and blackmailed with the best of us.

I’d hooked my own virtual display into the loop—only a few photons thick so nothing would show on their monitors—and the stuff that flashed up was little short of macabre. These guys had the filth on everyone: three-star generals, top-flight civil servants, glitterati, the mob, even legit business tycoons and ordinary billionaires. Images, audio, bank account records, credit history, along with the usual juicy details about who was screwing what, for how much and to whose detriment.

The security footage from last night was there. Even some snaps of me and Dragonfly at the tarocchi table. Not Nikita, though. He had some guy from casino security in his pocket; the same guy who’d be making our escape so interesting in a few minutes’ time.

I peered closer, dragging through the pictures one by one. There we sat, Dragonfly and I, playing cards, drinking, me smiling and glancing sidelong, him leaning toward me to whisper, his fingertips brushing my arm. The pictures made me cringe. I’d done a pretty good job of flirting with him. We looked about ready to drag each other out the back and get on with it.

If I hadn’t known he was an ice-blooded killer with shit for morals, I might have considered it. I’d been pretty drunk, and even sober I had to admit he was good-looking and charming. Good thing for me that Nikita and I had won the game, the easiest way to get rid of Dragonfly. The loser never gets the girl.

“Well, if it isn’t the delectable Lady Curious.”

My heart thudded, and my head whipped around before I could stop it.

Dragonfly slouched against the open hatchway, his hands shoved in his pockets, a sweet little smile turning his lips. He wore a grey silk suit, cufflinks glinting, dark hair tumbling about his shoulders, his tie loose like he’d wandered in from the bar.

Flushing, I turned back and flicked away from the pictures so he wouldn’t see. I should shoot him right now, get his irritating face off my radar. Suited me. Only I wasn’t convinced Nikita would let me live if I defied my orders, and I had to admit Dragonfly’s murky plans intrigued me.

“Go away, I’m working.”

“As it happens, so am I. And on the same thing, judging by that set-up of yours.”

He sauntered up to peer over my shoulder, and I squirmed. Scented soap, whisky, a hint of spice. Damn.

He pulled a golden hyperchip from his pocket and flipped it over his knuckles. “You’re full of surprises, Lady Curious. I’m captivated. Now move over, you’re in the way.”

“Stop calling me that. It’s Lazuli, if you must know.”

“Enchanted, Lazuli. You’re still in the way.”

I split the display contacts, and the projection vanished. I stuffed the slim set away into my thigh pocket, but didn’t step aside. “Be my guest. I’ve got what I came for.”

“By grace of my icebreaker, if I’m not mistaken. Leaving now, are you?”

He leaned past me over the neurospace, running his fingers delicately over the bio-skin, probing for the right receptor for his chip. My own skin shivered warm in sympathy, and inwardly I cursed. This was no time to get distracted.

“Dragonfly, right? The insurrection’s favorite armed robber?” No way was I asking his real name. I didn’t care. Vermin didn’t have names. “Kinda thought you’d be taller.”

He grinned, careless, but color brightened his face in the green light. “You’ve heard of me. I’m flattered.”

“Don’t be. They say it’s the vault you’re after, and that makes you either a genius or an idiot. I know which one I’m betting on.”

“Can’t argue with your betting skills after last night.”

He slotted the chip, and all the bio-diodes flickered out.

I gasped. He’d just put the entire autonomous portion of the neurospace to sleep. “How did you do that?”

Static crackled and popped, and above our heads the laser security grid snapped off. Dragonfly studied the data columns, flicking his gaze up and down. “Wouldn’t you love to know? Okay, we’re on our way. You want to keep an eye on this?”

“What?”

He slipped a smooth hand around my arm and pulled me closer. My skin burned. I tensed, my throat tight, but he just pointed at the glowing column. “If you’re going to stand there, you might as well help. See that synapse voltage? Anything below twelve nano is bad.”

I glanced at him, intrigued despite myself. “How bad?”

“Alarm-screeching, tear-gas-up-your-nose, laser-rifle-in-the-face bad.”

He pulled a glittering plastic cube from his pocket and twisted it in half. Faint yellow light speared up a hand’s-width wide, a remote display. Keeping half an eye on the data column, I sneaked a look. He fingered lightly through encrypted directories and hidden files, flicking what he wanted onto his hyperchip. I had to admit he impressed me. He worked swiftly, confidently, without pause, not a bead of sweat on his smooth face.

I craned my neck, resting my hand on his shoulder, trying to see what he was taking. “What good is that?” I asked as he copied yott after gibberish yott. “It’s still encrypted.”

“What do you care?” he retorted, his eyes on the display. “Numbers, please.”

Quickly I scanned the shifting data column. “Fifteen three. Volts are dropping quickly. Get on with it.”

“Patience.” He flipped through a couple more screens, pushing his hair from his eyes.

“Fourteen.” I glanced at the sweating neuroconsole, my pulse urgent even though I knew what would happen. “Thirteen. They’ll be onto us. Time to go.”

On the console, a bio-diode flickered blue, and another, and another. I couldn’t hear the alarms, but I didn’t need to. “That’s it. It’s awake.”

“Too bad for them. I’m done.” Dragonfly crunched the cube closed, shutting the display off, and shoved it into his pocket. “It’s been fun, nice knowing you, all that. See you around.”

He reached for the golden hyperchip, but I got there before him and pulled it from the slot with a sharp pop.

His gaze hardened like glass, reflecting the flashing diodes, and he took a step toward me. “We don’t have time for this. Give it to me.”

Scarlet security lights snapped on in the corridor, and in the distance above someone shouted.

The chip felt warm in my fingers, and I gripped it tightly. “I can’t do that.”

“Give.” He flashed out his hand to grab my wrist.

He was quick. But I was quicker. My shatterjay dug into the pulse in his throat.

He swallowed, and slowly let me go, holding his hands away. Now sweat gleamed on his face. “What do you want?”

His body was tense, hard, only a whisper away, but I didn’t have time to think about that now. I slipped the chip down the front of my shorts into my underwear—he’d die before he got his hand down there—and jabbed the shatterjay in tighter. Feeling him squirm heated my skin, my damp hair sticking to my neck. “You’ll take me with you.”

He laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

“No way. I was doing fine until you got here. Thanks to you, my exit strategy is toast. We go together or we don’t go at all.”

He looked ready to argue, but the crack and sizzle of the laser security grid recharging overhead must have changed his mind. Nikita couldn’t have timed the recharge more perfectly.

Dragonfly spun around with no regard for my weapon and pulled his own, a short-range plasma pistol. “
Está bien.
Are you any good with that thing?”

I switched the jay to projectile mode and took cover beside the hatchway. “Want to wait here to find out?”

“No.” He gripped his pistol two-handed and led with it into the corridor, poking his head out to clear to the right. He moved smoothly and efficiently, without wasted motion. “Come on. We’ll finish this conversation later.”

“Whatever you say.”

I slipped out behind him and cleared the left. Green neuroplasma glimmered in hardened plastic conduits beneath the white mesh under my feet. Dragonfly put a burning red shot into the krypton light overhead. It arced and melted in a shower of purple sparks, leaving us in near darkness, and we were on our way, me in the lead, stepping lightly but quickly through a sharp ozone haze.

The security matrix had activated when the neurospace awoke, but we were in the deepest of two neurolevels and the response hadn’t made it down to us yet. As we danced along the steaming corridor, our weapons covering alcoves and corners, violet sparks raining from the burning lights, the thrill of pursuit quickened my pulse, my skin alive with excitement. I smiled to myself. Nikita had been right, as usual. Explosives and poison were out, because they’d harm the neural circuits. Esperanza’s security was limited to good old-fashioned guys with guns, and they’d have to catch us first.

“This way.” Dragonfly nudged me, and we ducked behind a row of cylindrical plastic cooling tanks, their wet white surface stretching up through a gap in the ceiling to the next level. He gestured with his pistol over my head, to where narrow access steps molded into the tank’s side. “Up.”

I’d kind of figured that, but I didn’t say anything. He was supposed to be rescuing me, after all. I didn’t like the idea of disarming. Nikita might be running this escape, but the goons with guns wouldn’t know that. But I needed two hands. I snapped the jay back onto its clip around my thigh and swung myself up onto the first rung, my sweaty hands slipping on slick plastic.