Trail of Evil - eARC (22 page)

“What? A hundred-and-fourth face?”

“Yes.”

“Does that mean there’s another clone? Maybe we just haven’t seen that one yet. It could be from another continent or something that doesn’t make here often.” Jack asked.

“Well, that is possible. But, I don’t think so, Jack, because I’ve only seen the one face the one time. As busy as this city is, we’ve seen thousands, maybe millions, of people in the last twenty or so hours. Nobody has catalogued this face. Allison has verified this. I even hacked into a security camera net that I found on the streets. Allison has been running facial recognition codes for hours and nothing but one hundred and three faces. This face is significant and different.”

“Track it, Nancy, track it!” Jack said. “This is anomalous and I agree, it must mean something.”

“I’m on it.”

“Stay with it and keep us posted.”

“Roger that. Nancy out.”

A hundred-and-fourth face. That’s strange,
Jack thought.

Well, maybe not, Jack,
Candis, responded to his mind.
It’s possible that she just hasn’t seen the other clones and that’s it is not the only one.

It’s possible
.
But Nancy’s so damn thorough, I wouldn’t see her making a mistake like that. And I wouldn’t see her calling something in like that, if she’s not researched it a little bit deeper. It makes me nervous that she hacked the security cameras without asking first, but she doesn’t need my permission.

I just said it was possible,
Jack.
I didn’t say I believed it.

Jack just grunted to himself.

Jack stayed close to the building walls along the alleyways and carefully moved toward Dee’s position. He hoped that, once he got there, what he would find was a reason for this system and how its population had managed to get so large so quickly.

“Rackman,” Nancy opened a channel to the SEAL who had been shadowing her for the past hour or so as they had bounced on rooftops keeping themselves a good kilometer from the target and each other. Even though they were jamming most sensors, a key part of recon was staying out of sight of the bad guys. “I want you to cover my backside and spot for me.”

“Roger that,” the SEAL replied. “I’ll take a vantage point as high up as I can and keep you in my long range sensor view. Rifle is at the ready if you need me.”

“Good. If you can, help me keep an eye on our target.”

“Affirmative.”

Nancy saw the humanoid with the hundred-and-fourth face casually mixing through the crowd, and at no time did the crowd seem to pay him any attention. Nancy, on the other hand, was certainly an outsider and would draw attention to herself in her powered armor. She stayed on top of the higher buildings when she could using the recon sensors of her suit to keep track of her target. Occasionally, she and Rackman would have to leapfrog each other to find vantage points giving them a solid view of the target while still staying out of sight. This made tracking the individual much more difficult. Nancy had done plenty of stealth missions in the past and she knew how to stay out of sight. The SEAL seemed pretty good at it as well. But there was something almost too easy about their mission. They had yet to even have a close call.

In order to maintain her track she had to use all the street cameras she could hack. It also meant she had to go from rooftop to rooftop, alleyway to alleyway, and even underground on three different occasions. But it wasn’t anything that Nancy hadn’t done before. Having Rackman keeping an eye out on the topside actually made it easier than it could have been without him.

Allison, you got a track on him?

I’ve got him, Nancy. But if you can’t stay any closer, we’re going to have to go active with the sensors. Or look into other low tier security systems we can hack.

Negative,
Nancy thought.
As soon as we go active with sensors, Copernicus will know we’re here. It’s already a risk hacking local systems.

Who says he doesn’t already, and he’s just playing with us? How do we know that hundred-and-fourth face isn’t Copernicus?
Allison thought into Nancy’s mind.

I’m not so sure, Allison. Copernicus would hide himself. He would want to look just like everybody else. That’s the way he’s operated, with staying behind the curtain. This is something else. This is someone else.

Perhaps you were right the first time, Nancy,
Allison thought.
Perhaps it’s something else. For now, I’m only hacking individual standalone systems. Our hack would appear nothing more than another standalone transceiver. I hope.

The target might be something else. That is unsettling isn’t it?
That gave Nancy pause. That was what made her nervous—”something else” was an unknown. Nancy didn’t like unknowns. Boland was rubbing off on her.

Chapter 32

December 3, 2406 AD

61 Ursae Majoris

31 Light-years from the Sol System

Saturday, 8:04 AM, Earth Eastern Standard Time

Nancy followed the track in the opposite direction of the rest of the team. The target had stopped for coffee at a local shop. He ate what appeared to be a bagel and washed it down with a large cup of black coffee. The face that the guy made as he ate and drank was one of sheer delight, as though it was a major treat. Nancy wasn’t sure what was more weird to her, the fact that the guy acted like having coffee and a bagel was exciting or the fact that she was on a planet thirty-one light-years from Earth and it looked and felt as much like Earth as Earth did. However, the construction and implacement of this city had been accomplished, from human standards it would have taken centuries. Humanity just hadn’t been out this far long enough to build such a city. To top that off, the entire planet was densly populated. The planet’s moon appeared to be the same as well. And there were two other planets in the system that were inhabited. The system could easily hold twenty or thirty billion people.

If they were people.

At one point the man took a subway train and Nancy almost lost him. She had lost Rackman in the process. The SEAL had been too far back to jump on a train with her. He eventually caught up once she figured out where she was going.

Allison spread her search as far as her low-level sensors would reach while she ran at top speeds and as best out of sight as she could to catch up with the train. At two different points she managed to jump on trains headed in what she hoped was the same general direction as the train her target had taken. After about five minutes Allison regained track on the target through security cameras. Soon after that Nancy managed to catch back up to within spitting distance.

Looks like he might be at his destination
, Allison said to her.

Good, where are we relative to the continent, the team, and the shuttle?
All of the information popped up in her DTM view. Nancy spent a few seconds zooming in and out of the data getting her bearings.
Okay, now get me zoomed in good on this guy.

Roger that,
Allison said.

“Rackman? You about caught up with me?”

“Yes, ma’am. I’ve got my crosshairs on the back of your head right now,” Rackman said.

“Uh, good, but what do you say we keep the crosshairs on our target’s head, huh?”

“Roger that, Pensginton,” Rackman laughed.

After multiple train hops and fast runs with jumpboots firing they had managed to follow their target to a large estate house. The estate house was surrounded by a fence and its architecture looked like a cross between the Federalist architecture of Washington, D.C. with a mix of New Tharsis architecture on Ares where Elle Ahmi had made her Separatist Capitol during the war. In fact, there was something very Separatist about the estate. If this planet had a White House, this had to be it.

The target spent a second outside the guard gate discussing something with the guards. He stood straight and unmoving for several moments until the gate was opened and he was escorted through.

Shit. We need to find a way inside there. Allison, find me a sewer, low fence, service entrance or something.

Got it, Nancy.
Allison replied almost as if she had anticipated what Nancy would ask.
South entrance is not currently being guarded and it is locked down. The gate is only six meters or so tall. Piece of cake.

While this “White House” had been built with security in mind, it was clear that whoever built it wasn’t really concerned that a person in a powered armored suit would be trying to get in. Certainly, they weren’t expecting a suit that was jamming every sensor in view with a Buckley-Freeman switch that was reverse engineered from Elle Ahmi’s or Copernicus’ own handiwork.

The mansion was surrounded by the city, much like the White House. Nancy bounced over several rooftops to make it to the south entrance. From that vantage point she could see into the backyard of the building. While the architecture was similar to the White House of Earth, the building was more than ten stories high, which was more like Ahmi’s mansion penthouse on Ares. There were buildings around that were about as tall and maybe slightly taller, but none were skyscrapers like those seen further north where the rest of the team was currently.

Nancy positioned herself on the highest vantage point nearby. In order to get there she had climbed up exterior fire escapes and even clawed her way up the side of a hotel. The sun was just barely peeking above the horizon and it was a bit of an overcast day. It was very early and she hoped nobody was paying her any attention. Either she had done a good job hiding herself and the Buckley-Freeman switch was working, or she had been seen and nobody cared.

Nancy looked out at the top of the “White House” building. It was more than fifty meters away across a wide street and about five meters below her current position. Nancy didn’t think she could make it from one rooftop to the other in one leap, but she did think if she timed it right with traffic and passersby that she could bounce once just outside the gate, up and over, and then land against the wall of the building. From there Allison had already identified a service entrance. Nancy would have to get out of the suit to go any further than that.

She waited as a few vehicles purred down the street. The sounds of the electric engines were about the only source of ambient noise other than birds and squirrels and the wind.

Go now!
Allison shouted in her mind.

Nancy bounced in a long sweeping arc from the rooftop all the way across the street and to the ground just outside the south gate. Almost as instantly as she hit the ground she bounced again up and over the wall to the ground twenty meters on the other side. She bounced once more and closed the gap to the service entrance.

Nancy stayed low and had her suit is digital camouflage blending in with the paint colors and other surroundings. She clanked up to the service entrance and hid behind a dumpster alcove.

Can you get me in, Allison?

I’m cycling through the lock codes now
, the super spy’s AIC replied. A few seconds later and the lock clicked. Nancy quickly rushed to the door and slipped inside.

She looked around and could only see a long corridor stretching out in front of her with multiple hallways extending out to the left and right along the length of it. The corridor and the hallways were all large enough for a supply vehicle to drive through and the walls and floor were painted in nondescript dull gray but clean and well-maintained. There were yellow and black stripes on the floor showing forklift lanes and pedestrian walkways. Nancy followed the corridor to a service elevator and had Allison bring it down to her level.

Have you still got a visual on the target?
She thought.

Negative, Nancy. All of the cameras in this building are on their own internal circuit. I am afraid if I hack into them I will alert someone to our presence. However, I got his voice pattern from the coffee shop and the front gate here. And there is an intercom system that isn’t connected to the security network so I am tracking his voice through it. He is on the tenth penthouse level. Now that I have a few voice pattern samples I can use ambient data transmission multi-path noise to pull his voice out of the background. I can track him anywhere in this building now. He is entering the penthouse office suite now.

Get me a path to there.
A path highlighted itself in her DTM view. The service elevator could take her to that level.

“Rackman, what are you doing?”

“Still covering your egress position, ma’am,” Davy replied.

“Well, our target is on the penthouse of this building. Jump around out there and see if you can get us a visual.”

“I’m on it.”

Nancy found an entrance to the engineering room of the building where maintenance equipment, plumbing, air conditioning, and electrical systems seemed to originate from. She dropped her suit there. She was wearing a compression skinsuit and shoes underneath the armor. The light metal gray skintight microthin layer kept her warm and compressed her muscles for performance. The suit made her muscles and physical features stand out even more than the UCU tops did for the soldiers. The lightweight shoes were designed for military training and running so they would hold up to most rigors she might expose them to. But best of all, the hard rubberized foam-filled soles were quiet. She could sneak about very easily in them. The suit not clanking on everything helped more than anything.

She reached in the breast pouch of the suit and pulled out a handgun M-blaster and melded it to her uniform on her right thigh. If she needed it she’d only have to grab it and pull and the skinsuit would let it go.

Nancy hoped nobody would be down there anytime soon to run maintenance on the power plant or the plumbing. She didn’t want them finding her e-suit. She slipped out of the room and made her way to the service elevator. After Allison cycled the codes on it and it opened empty, she climbed in and upward she went.

Our guy is speaking with somebody now, Nancy. Want to hear it?

Yes.

Okay, playing now
. The audio of the conversation began playing in Nancy’s head.

“Time is running out,” the target’s voice said.

“How so?” It it was a female voice—one that sounded vaguely and eerily familiar to Nancy.

“The Chiata has made the decision to act on their property and the courts have ruled in their favor. The futures on your system were bought by the Chiata over fifteen thousand years ago. At that time they had no way of suspecting what your people would become. At least that was their argument,” the target voice said. “And, of course, the court system passed it through.”

On the way up Nancy crawled up through the top escape hatch of the elevator onto the upper side of it. Once it peaked at the top floor she jumped off onto an elevator maintenance ladder. She worked herself around to a catwalk leading through what appeared to be an equipment attic and then sat still for moment to listen to the conversation.

I’d really like to get a visual on this
, she thought.

I’m working on it.
Allison replied.

“Rackman, where’s my visual?” she subvocalized over the com channel.

“No good vantage point out of view of the locals out here. I’m still working on it.” Nancy understood and turned her focus back to the conversation between her target and the new player.

“And you’re certain there is no way to stop this?” the female voice said.

“Yes, I’m certain. Honestly, I never thought we could. The Chiata have controlled the courts for more than fifty thousand years and nobody has been able to stop their expansion. My people couldn’t stop them when they acquired my system and nobody else has stopped them in many millennia. It is only a matter of time before they take the entire spur of the galaxy.” the target voice said.

“So, what is our play? Can’t we appeal to the courts directly?”

“My dear, you are nothing more than annoying pests in the eyes of the courts. When the assessment of your world was done it was found that there was nothing you could do to stop nature. You were not deemed a viable lifeform” The male voice replied. “Most certainly, a business venture worth the wealth of several star systems would not be stopped on your account.”

“Our assessment! We were still living in thatch huts, how were we expected to stop an asteroid impact? Your court system is morally defective.” The voice sounded so familiar, but through the garbled hacked intercom and multi-path filtered audio it was hard to get a fix on it.

“Morality is not solely a function of humanity, my dear. But for the last fifty thousand years or so the Chiata have corrupted our morality with fear. I knew fifteen thousand years ago that this day would eventually come. My legal team and I have taken on these cases since the Chiata came into power. They are ravenous vile beasts and I fear they will never leave well enough alone until they have devoured our entire galaxy and moved on to the next nearest one. We aren’t even certain that they originated in our galaxy. We think they are one of the few species that expanded from the edge of the galaxy inward. There is still enough of a semblance of legality and morality in the system that we are usually able to stall with legal proceedings for a millennia or two, but never indefinitely. In your case, we have done well. Fortunately for you, the Chiata have been occupied with other endeavors and yours was a minor one.”

“Minor!” the female shouted. “Minor! You think the total destruction of an entire sentient species over multiple worlds is minor?”

“We’ve had this conversation so many times. Yes, in the grand scheme of things, it is minor, as I have explained to you for nearly two hundred years. We must get past this and decide how to evacuate your people.”

“Bullshit! You didn’t build that damned membrane detection and communications systems out here at the edge of the auctioned region all those years ago just to tell us this bullshit and then evacuate us. You have allies or you wouldn’t have been able to hold them off in court for so long.”

“You are suggesting I do what then?” the male voice said.

“Help us fight them.”

The man laughed. “Without some sort of proof that you can stand up to the Chiata there is no chance of having anybody else get involved. Not even the Ghuthlaeer, who hate the Chiata down to their last ounce of blood, would stand with a small group of primitive worlds.”

“Okay, so you won’t fight with us for now. Give me some intelligence on them that will help. I need information. Give me a target. Preferably a soft one that we could get to and make a first impression or a statement about who and what we are. What type of creatures are they? What is the basis of their technology?” Nancy shifted her weight on her feet as she listened. There was too much familiarity in the discussion. She had a bad feeling about all of it. This was big and needed to be reported back to General Moore immediately.