The Trilisk AI (22 page)

She
cut through the outer casing on three sides and removed a corner. The inside
was constructed of three simple modules: a network controller, a processor
block, and a storage block. Most of each block was neutral insulator. The
actual componentry inside each one was very small: they were only hand-size for
convenience. The insulator allowed the components to run at very high
frequencies without being affected by outside noise or emitting noise of their
own.

Cilreth
cut away more of the casing. She unplugged the storage component and slipped it
into her suit. Though it couldn’t be accessed stand-alone, she could set it up
for extraction later, after she’d escaped with her life intact.
One down.
Two more.

As
she stood up she noticed the hole in the ceiling for the first time. Something
had been cut away or vaporized there, too.
A laser emplacement, perhaps.
This place has been cleaned from top to bottom in three minutes. Kinda creepy,
actually. So quiet in here.

Cilreth
continued her sweep. The corridors were flawless, clean, and opulent. The plastic
and carbon shone. Each room had a clear color theme of its own, as if
professionally decorated. She walked through a wide room set up as a tropical
paradise, with bright lights, bamboo furniture, parasols, and a video feed of
the ocean playing across one wide wall.
Damn. High class criminals, I guess!

The
sensor found another storage unit to her right. She let herself through a door
manually and found a vast suite. The walls were black, the ceiling a deep blue.
Blue zetta cone-ferns grew in two corners, a diatomic plant structure from one
of the first alien ruins ever discovered. They were insanely expensive.
Must
be the leader’s quarters, or someone high up, at least.

A
huge, low desk sat in the center of the main room. An alcove to the left held a
bar, another to the right housed a wide, low bed.

A
naked woman sprawled across the desk on her back. Her body was magnificently
sculpted, even in an age of toning pills and sleep-scheduled exercise. A man
behind the desk had collapsed forward onto her breasts. He was bald with a
long, black beard stylishly cut into two long spikes of hair. Saliva ran out of
his mouth over her stomach. Another nude woman with short black hair and heavy
makeup lay curled up on the bed, unconscious. A small doorway in the back
revealed a pair of smooth, probably female legs sprawled on the floor.
Party
much?

A
silver cylinder with a screw top lay open next to the man, with a dozen pills
spilled out of it. The pills were tiny red spheres. Cilreth fixated on the
pills immediately.
Want. I can take that and no one will ever know. There
must be five hundred of them.

Cilreth
reached out to pick up the silver flask. Then she hesitated; her fingers
retracted.
Shit. Dammit. I’d better not. I don’t want to screw up this job
and get Relachik’s kid killed.

Cilreth
struggled with the decision. She stood paralyzed over the treasure.
I could
take them with me. But I won’t be able to resist using them. DAMMIT!

Her
sensor suite demanded her attention, so she went to retrieve the storage unit
from inside the desk. She had the second module in hand when her stealth suit
picked up link traffic nearby. She didn’t dare respond or connect to any
services, but it was clear from a passive scan that she was no longer alone in
the building.

Here
comes the Space Force to pick up their mess. Screw the pills.
She sighed.
I’ll regret this later
when I’m bored out of my mind.

Cilreth
left the suite. She had walked through most of the building and to the right
side, so she figured she had covered most of the right side. She wanted to hit
the left section on the way out, so she found a cross-corridor heading in the
correct direction and followed it.

Up
ahead she saw movement. A man and a woman in smooth black uniforms that covered
their hands and part of their faces were loading a sleeping person onto a
carrier.

Cilreth
avoided them. She circled around the side of the building, looking for an empty
route. She emerged into an atrium with a security checkpoint. Another laser
emplacement had been vaporized there. She froze as a couple of Space Force
people walked through the other side of the atrium. They didn’t appear to be
especially alert.

Why
should they be? They’re probably used to walking through the graveyards left
behind by whatever that was. An Avatar-class battle module?

Her
sensors located another storage unit. Cilreth found a panel in the wall to pry
open which revealed her next target. A few seconds later she had the outer
casing open.

Another
pair of Space Force people walked into the atrium. Cilreth cupped the storage
block and told her suit to include it in the camouflage zone. The color of the
block became transparent to Cilreth’s view, visible only with a glowing
outline. That meant it was invisible from the outside.

The
new people headed toward her. She could see they were both women. Cilreth
calmly walked aside and let them approach the open panel.

“We’re
missing at least one storage module. They must have pulled it.”

“How
could they know?”

“Keep
looking. It’s bound to be on one of them.”

You’re
not going to find them, ever.

Cilreth
managed to keep from sprinting as she headed down the last hallway toward the
exit. In the front courtyard, more Space Force people worked to load the
unconscious victims into large white vehicle. Its side opened up to reveal
dozens of slots for storing people horizontally.
The criminals aren’t dead.
But that’s still kinda creepy.

She
headed for the hole in the compound wall where the gate had been. She let her
footprints blend in with those of the Space Force retrieval group.

A
man in a skinsuit with a rifle in his hands stepped out from behind a building,
heading toward the gate. Cilreth stopped in her tracks.
Would he notice the
footprints?

The
man walked to the compound wall and took a look around. Cilreth took a few steps
every time his back was to her.
Patience. Patience.

Suddenly
the man turned and looked toward her. Cilreth’s breath caught in her throat.
I’m invisible, dammit.

Something
had obviously alerted him. The rifle swung around. Cilreth drew her stunner.

But
the man pointed the rifle at the entrance. He scanned the outside of the main
building with his eyes.

Oh
shit. I get it. They’ve told him things are missing in there and he’s supposed
to stay sharp. I’m outta here.

As
soon as the man got a few meters past her position, she resumed her careful
steps. As the distance grew she increased her speed until she was loping past
the compound wall.

She
took one last look back. The soldier was examining the ground in front of the
entrance.

Cilreth
turned and tried to brush the sand in her wake. Since her closest footsteps
were invisible, she didn’t do such a great job. As she retreated she saw her
own brushing had left a discernible pattern.
Screw it. I’ll be gone by the
time they figure it out.

She
turned and ran, trying to stick to rocky ground as much as possible as she
loped back toward Station One.

***

“Someone
is leaving,” Arlin said. They stood next to a storage shed well beyond the
perimeter of the compound. Relachik and Arlin had found it on their initial
scan of the defenses. It was so far out, they weren’t even sure it belonged to
the F-clave. But the shed was deserted, filled with only food, water, and spare
parts.

Relachik
checked the perimeter. It was as Arlin said. Three men came out and ran toward
two electric all-terrain vehicles. The men hopped in, two in the first and the
last in another of his own. Relachik saw that they held several silver
cylinders with rounded tops.

“They’re
in a hurry,” Relachik said.

“Coincidence?”

“I
would like to say yes. But dammit, there is no such thing.”

“Sir,
those are network storage modules they’re carrying,” Arlin pointed out.

“Damn.
Damn! We have to go after them. How could they know?”

“There’s
a leak somewhere,” Arlin said.

Or
they have other clues. What could it be? Supply movements? Sensors in orbit?
Maybe they hacked into the new planetary defense network.

“We
don’t have a jeep! We need to follow them.”

“Yes,
we do,” Arlin said. “Out back!” Relachik and Arlin left the shed and ran around
behind it. The criminals drove out of the compound. They left the back gate
open.

“Could
it be a trap?”

“If
they’re this far ahead of us what hope do we have?” Relachik asked, but he was
already getting into the electric jeep.

“Cilreth,
stay sharp,” Relachik sent to their other team member. “We can’t back you up
for a while. If I’m right about the Avatar, though, this should be a piece of
cake for you.”

“Got
it,” she said, though she sounded slightly put off. Relachik didn’t blame her.
She didn’t deserve to be left on her own. But they had no choice, and besides,
she had the best hardware. The stealth suit counted for a lot.

The
jeep was old. It might have been one of the first vehicles on the planet.

“It’ll
take a while to disable the—”

“Use
an emergency override. Let it complain; we’ll be gone before anyone can get out
here.”

“The
Space Force team may respond to it.”

“What
choice do we have? Hurry,” Relachik said.

Arlin
brought the jeep to life.

Attempting
to notify authorities of your emergency
, the jeep told them. Relachik took the passenger seat and
they started forward.

“Battery
is at twenty-two percent,” Arlin noted. He headed for the rough dirt road the
men had taken.

They
veered onto the road at top speed. Relachik set his link to process what he saw
to enhance his night vision. In his mind’s eye he saw another feed of the view
through his eyes, with more details. He could see a thin dust trail in the
evening light.

The
authorities are temporarily out of range
, the jeep said.

“I
doubt they’ve spotted us,” Arlin said over his link.

Relachik
readied his rifle by selecting the human target profile.
Haven’t done that
in a long time
, he thought.

“It’ll
be most effective if we both shoot at once, and soon, before they see us,”
Arlin said.

“Yes.
Lead vehicle. Use a lethal targeting option. They have weapons, and if we just
wound them they’ll shoot back and kill us. Besides, you don’t want one of them
showing up for revenge someday.”

“Yes,
sir.”

Arlin
flopped his rifle beside the manual controls of the jeep. No doubt he was
controlling it through his link, or he’d simply set it to follow the lead
vehicle.

“As
soon as we come off this light curve... three, two, one, fire,” Relachik said
with cold precision.

The
weapons obliterated the calm of the dry night air. Blood sprayed across the
lead vehicle with two men in it. The jeep detected a problem and slowed to a
halt. The driver behind allowed his jeep to remain slaved to the leader for a
moment, then he took control of it and steered around the first jeep. The
vehicle headed back out on the road, gaining speed.

Relachik
lost sight of the man. Presumably he had taken cover behind the front seats.

Arlin
shot the rear tire. The vehicle detected a malfunction and slowed to a halt
beside the road. There was still no sign of the man. They arced around the
blood-spattered vehicle with the bodies to pursue. There was still no sign of
any passenger in the front jeep. The vehicle was fairly open, like their own;
there was little space to hide.

Relachik
realized it was a trick. He scanned the side of the road. He saw the man,
already fifty meters away from the road, sprinting through the sand.

“He
bailed! He’s going for cover!” Relachik said, pointing him out. Arlin brought
their jeep to a halt.

He
must have jumped out as he passed the other jeep.

“I’m
headed in. Talk at you when I’m done,” Cilreth’s voice came through his link.

Relachik
brought up his rifle and accessed its advanced optics. He could see the trail
of footprints leading toward a group of rocks. He scanned the rocks from end to
end. He spotted a foot. It shifted. Then the man was running for another nearby
rock formation.

Relachik
shot him. The round took the man down cleanly.

“Good
luck,” he sent Cilreth.

“We
have all three. Should be simple cleanup now,” Arlin said. “Should we take the
vehicles off the road?”