The Credulity Nexus (26 page)

She was in
front of him, standing in the robot's path, looking brave and
determined, her fists raised and clenched. Rik thought she looked
far too small and vulnerable. Beyond her, far off, he saw more
armed men rounding the corner of the building.

The robot
didn't even slow its limping progress. It knocked Freymann aside
with a single swipe of its damaged arm, sending her sprawling in
the grass.

Furious, Rik
kicked at the robot's legs, trying to trip it. It staggered, but
did not fall. It wrenched Rik's arm painfully as it stumbled,
keeping him in its unbreakable grip.

Then Rivers
was there, like a deeper darkness in the night, her black shape
picked out in dull, ruddy highlights. She grabbed the arm that was
holding Rik's and twisted. The robot's other arm shot out at
Rivers' head, but the upload dodged the blow, seizing the robot's
neck and head-butting it in the face. The hand came free from Rik's
arm. Rivers and the scantily-dressed robot whirled away into the
night, locked in combat.

“
Get into the fucking chopper,” Rivers
shouted.

Rik looked
about him and found Freymann on the ground nearby. She was dazed
and trying to get up. He ran to her and helped her, dragging her
along towards the open door of the waiting helicopter.

Machine gun
fire flickered from the muzzles of the approaching men, lighting up
the gap between them and the grey bulk of the helicopter. Rik heard
bullets zipping past in sharp little whispers, like vicious
insects. A louder roar of gunfire came from the chopper, and
Cordell's gunmen scattered for cover. It gave Rik and Freymann time
to get to the door.

“
Give me a gun,” he yelled at the pilot,
helping Freymann inside.

“
What?”

“
A gun. Give me a fucking gun!”

The pilot
pulled a pistol out of a holster on his leg.

Rik shook his
head. “Bigger!”

The pilot
reached across and pulled a pump-action shotgun from a rack on the
cabin wall. “We've got to get airborne,” the man bellowed. “We're
sitting ducks here.”

“
Rev her up then,” Rik shouted, and ran
back into the dark. “I'll be back in a sec.”

Rivers and the
Barbie were still trading blows a few metres away. The upload
clearly had the upper hand, but the damned robot just wouldn't stay
down. Rik pumped a round into the chamber. He ran up close and
fired point blank into the Barbie's face.

It made quite
a mess. Enough that the robot let go of Rivers for a moment, giving
her the chance to jump back out of reach. The machine seemed to be
disoriented. From it's writhing, it might even have been in pain.
Rivers kicked the robot in the belly, then turned to Rik.

“
Killer fucking robots?” she demanded
angrily. “You're real fun to be around. What next?”

Rik assumed it
was a rhetorical question and sprinted for the Comanche. Rivers
beat him to it and helped him aboard, while bullets pinged off the
ship's armoured hull.

Three lights
appeared in the sky. From the way the smoke swirled beneath them,
Rik guessed they were helicopters. The pilot began swearing
energetically in Spanish, and the engines screamed into life. They
lurched into the air and swung away from the approaching
aircraft.

As they rose above roof height, a
drum-roll of bullets played across their armour plating. The
machine gunners on the roof had found them. The pilot looked
anxiously over his shoulder and veered onto a new heading, his
swearing sounding more like a long, desperate prayer.

Rik checked on
Freymann, who shouted and signed that she was OK. She looked pale
and tired, but Rik believed she wasn't hurt, just shaken up. He was
beginning to understand that this little New Yorker was as tough as
they came.

He looked over
at Rivers. The upload sat with her arms resting on her knees and
her head slumped between her shoulders. There were scars along her
body and arms that could only have been made by a fembot's
nails.

He nudged her.
“You OK?”

She raised her
head and looked at him wearily. “I'm a cat burglar, you know. It's
a skilled profession. I'm one of the best. I'm not meant to be
wrestling with killer machines in the middle of fucking Mexico,
risking my ass in gunfights with the police and hired thugs,
getting shot at by cops and private dickheads like you.”

“
You look a bit ripped up. Will your body
heal?”

“
The fuck should I know? I only just got
the thing. What the hell do you care, anyway? You want to be my
buddy now? Jesus! The sooner I see the back of this whole screwed
up mess, the better!”

“
Hold on!” the pilot shouted, and before
anybody could obey, he threw the Comanche into a tight turn that
had the craft almost on its side.

Bullets
rattled off the armour again. The ’copter immediately righted
itself and rolled into a long, swooping climb in the other
direction. Rick tumbled sideways, unable to keep his seat. He
braced himself, ready to hit the cabin wall, but Rivers' hand was
there on his shoulder and the impact never happened. He climbed
back into his seat and got the harness fastened, watching the
upload suspiciously.

“
That was for coming back for me,” she
said.

Another
breathtaking manoeuvre prevented Rik from replying. When it was
over, he saw two of the pursuing helicopters through the front
windows. With a cry of triumph, the pilot triggered the missile
release, and four air-to-air missiles rushed off into the night,
dodging and weaving, splitting into two pairs that arced apart as
they followed their separate targets. The pilot pulled up and away
just as the world lit up with bright orange explosions.

The
shock-waves beat at the Comanche, but it racketed on through the
sky in another gut-wrenching turn.

“
Ha!” the pilot shouted. “The last one has
run away home! We are safe now.” To prove the point, he made a
gentle course correction and began to fly straight and
level.

Freymann leaned forward, and spoke so they
could all hear her. “Cordell must have arrangements with the
Federales
.
There'll be a nationwide search on. And he must have other
resources to draw on – the Mexican Air Force, maybe. There's an FAM
base south of here at Monterey, and a couple more to the
north.”

Rik was
amazed. “How the hell do you know that?”

Freymann
looked at him as if he were being deliberately stupid. “I used my
cogplus to run a search.”

Rik blinked in surprise. His own defective
cogplus had been giving him so much pain when he used it, he’d all
but given up trying.
When this is all over
, he promised himself,
I'm going to get this pile of junk
out of my head!

“
We need to ditch the chopper,” Freymann
was saying, “and find something less easy to spot.”

“
All taken care of,” Rivers said. “There's
a big lake east of here with a sea plane parked and waiting for us.
We'll ditch the helicopter in the water and go on by
plane.”

“
You're just going to ditch a multi-million
dollar helicopter gunship in a lake?” Freymann asked.

“
Sure. There's nothing out there but a few
farms and a couple of villages.”

“
Never mind about that,” Rik said. “Tell me
the bit where we go on by plane. Go on to where,
exactly?”

“
You tell me, partner. It's your show,
remember?”

Rik hadn't
actually thought about it. He'd followed a false trail, thinking he
would find Maria. Now he was all out of ideas. He'd been pretty
sure she would avoid all the obvious people, find someone obscure
to leave a message with. Cordell's people had obviously thought the
same thing, so every other obscure acquaintance he could think of
might also be a trap. They had better intel on him than he thought
they had, and they were being smarter than he had given them credit
for.

What's more,
Cordell had told him he knew where Maria was. So they'd already
found her, but how? He knew she wouldn't go near any friends or
relations in case she got them killed. She would have more sense
than to use her cogplus to buy anything. The only time she'd ever
be forced to use it would be if the police had her, or – the idea
slapped him in the face – or if she had to use her netID as a
passport to leave the US!

“
South,” he said, then more confidently,
“South, to Guadalajara spaceport. And make sure that fancy
rocket-ship of yours is fuelled up and waiting for us
there.”

Kirsty Winters
watched as Maria cleared customs and collected her bags. They had
said a fond farewell just ten minutes ago, after which Kirsty had
changed the colours and pattern of her smartfabric jacket, and
changed her wig colour from grey to brown, all through her cogplus
garment interface.

Sticking close
to Maria all the way from Florida to Heinlein had been a long,
tedious assignment, and it was supposed to be over.

“
What do you mean, 'stand by'?” she said
through her cogplus.

“
I mean,” a man's voice told her, “keep
your eyes on the target and shut your whining.”

“
This wasn't the deal. I've finished the
job. Transfer the money and don't give me any more of that ‘stand
by’ crap.”

The man made
no reply, and she fumed to herself. “This is an extension to the
contract,” she said. “Whatever the hell this is.”

Across the
arrivals lounge, Maria took her suitcase key and clipped it to her
belt. The bag oriented itself to the key and began rolling after
her as she walked towards the exit. She was clumsy and stumbling,
moving along in little hops and skips, the way all Earthers were on
their first trip to the Moon. Kirsty Winters moved along behind her
with the easy, gliding strides of a well-travelled woman.

She had to do
something soon or Maria would be out of the spaceport and into a
taxi. She needed an excuse, some kind of emergency that would
require Maria's help. She cursed as she closed the gap between
them. Anything she came up with would sound lame. Maria wasn't
stupid. She would be bound to be suspicious.

“
Are you there?” the man asked in her
head.

“
Yes. I'm going to have to make contact
again.”

“
You should be prepared to take her
out.”

Kirsty stopped
dead. “Do what?”

“
You may be required to eliminate the
target.”

“
You want me to kill her?”

“
Perhaps. If it becomes necessary.
Meanwhile, we'd like you to search her person and her belongings,
and retain anything you find.”

“
You are joking, aren't you?”

“
I'm authorised to offer twice the agreed
fee.”

The old woman
cursed. “It'll cost you five times the original price if you want a
hit. Take it or leave it.”

“
I am authorised to take it.”

She cursed
again, knowing she could have asked for more.

“
I want half up front. I don't trust you
any more. You'd better hurry. She's getting away.”

In fact,
Kirsty had begun following Maria again the moment the client agreed
the price. She might still get to Maria in time to get in a taxi
with her, spin her some yarn.

“
The money has been transferred. Don't let
us down, Kirsty.”

The voice in
her head hung up, and she was alone with her thoughts. She hadn't
expected a kill. She wasn't prepared. No weapon. Nothing lethal,
anyway. No location picked out. No escape planned to get her off
the Moon. It was a nightmare, but it could be done. The target was
an easy one, trusting and naïve. She just needed to be a bit
careful, that was all.

She increased
her pace, changing her jacket and her hair back as she went. As the
distance between them closed, she began to notice things; other
people moving with her, matching her pace; two men standing by the
exit – tough, watchful men – and an absence of airport security, as
if they'd been told to keep clear.

She slowed
down, let Maria pull ahead.

In a quick
burst of activity, the two men by the door stepped forward,
blocking Maria's way. Another two came up behind her and boxed her
in. Kirsty changed course, developing a sudden interest in an
advertising display. Maria looked frightened and tried to push her
way through, but they held her arms and moved quickly with her, out
of the building and away. It was a slick, well-coordinated action,
competent and professional.

Kirsty drifted
away from the jabbering adverts and stepped outside, pulling a
small dart gun from her bag and feeding a tracker dart into the
chamber. She was just in time to see the last of the kidnappers
climb into a waiting vehicle. She watched it slide out of the
parking bay and into a transit tube, disappearing at speed, her
tracker already attached to its body.

A man and a
woman were standing where the vehicle had been, looking around
intently. Kirsty saw the man's eyes pause on her, then move on. She
fussed with her bag, looking for something; a confused, elderly
lady, trying to cope with the complexities of a busy spaceport.

After a while,
an airport security officer approached the two. They exchanged a
few words. They were brief and businesslike. Cops, Kirsty realised.
Maria had been picked up by the cops. What the hell was going on
here? She bitterly regretted accepting the contract on the woman
now, although she really hadn't had much choice. The people she was
working for were not the sort you could refuse.